George Bird (Guinness), an unassuming salesman of agricultural implements, visits a physician for a routine check-up and is told he has Lampington's disease, a recently identified condition which allows him only a few weeks to live.

A bachelor with no family or friends, Bird decides to spend his last days among the elite clientele of an upmarket residential hotel at the fictional seaside resort of Pinebourne.

Bird quickly acquires friends and influence, falls in love (possibly for the first time in his life), sets wrongs to right, and is offered lucrative business opportunities.

The film was produced at Welwyn Studios with location shots at Luton, Bedfordshire, shopping parade, and 'The Rosetor Hotel', (now demolished), in Torquay, Devon.

[4] Upon its release in New York City in November 1950, Bosley Crowther called it an "amusing and poignant little picture" that is "simple and modest in structure but delightfully rich in character.

"[5] However, in Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48, critic Robert Murphy asserted that Last Holiday was not as good as it should have been, given the excellent performances by Guinness, Walsh and James.

In particular he described the film's production values as "shabby" and singled out Priestley's trick ending for even harsher criticism, calling it "disastrously inappropriate.

[7] Last Holiday of 2006 was a loose remake, starring Queen Latifah as Georgia Byrd, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt, and Gérard Depardieu.