The Extra Day

The Extra Day (also known as Twelve Desperate Hours and 12 Desperate Hours) is a 1956 British comedy-drama film directed by William Fairchild and starring Richard Basehart, Simone Simon and George Baker.

Plot
After the final scene of a film is lost by the driver taking it to the printing lab, the cast and extras have to be rounded up for it to be re-shot. This proves to be quite an endeavour. The director, German exile Kurt Vorn, sends several people out to gather the required actors, who are mainly in theatres.

Meanwhile Ronnie, a new Sinatra-style crooner, sings to crowds of adoring girls. His girlfriend Toni struggles to cope with this, until he announces to his adoring fans that he is going to marry her. The public proposal pushes Joe into also proposing, which is met with a slap on the face.

However, once all are assembled, the driver Harry returns with a battered film canister, saying the reshoot is not needed after all.

Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The episodes here are casually linked together, and the film rejects what might have been a promising subject – a film extra's real experiences – unambitiously to pursue its series of comic and sentimental anecdotes. The script leans heavily on situation 'gimmicks', few of them unfamiliar, the social placing of the characters is somewhat shaky, and an experienced cast is given little room to manoeuvre. It seems an odd, and perhaps unconscious, comment on the British film scene that the film within a film should employ a European director, American assistant director and French star."