Stanley Baker "This Sporting Life" but had to drop out when "Guns of Navarone" went over schedule. She says Baker never regretted losing the part of Bond to Sean Connery but regretted not making "This Sporting Life". Baker wanted to move into production, and to this end formed his own company, Diamond Films with Endfield. They developed a script about the Battle of Rorke's Drift written by Endfield and John Prebble. While making "Sodom and Gomorrah" Baker struck up a relationship with that film's producer, Joseph E. Levine which enabled him to raise the $3 million budget for "Zulu" (1964), directed by
Jack Hawkins to be Jack Hawkins. If he hadn't been free to play the part, then there wouldn't have been a film." "The Cruel Sea" was the most successful film of the year and saw Hawkins voted the most popular star in Britain regardless of nationality. According to one obituary he "exemplified for many cinemagoers the stiff upper lip tradition prevalent in post war British films. His craggy looks and authoritative bearing were used to good effect whatever branch of the services he represented." "Malta Story" (1953) was another military story, with Hawkins as an RAF officer in the Siege of Malta