The Servant (1963)

I wanted to but couldn't!

Don't Believe the Hype

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

THE SERVANT is a psychological drama, which examines relations and customs of high society in London. This is a film about social degradation, in which, we can feel, through fictional fog, a bitter truth.A rich young man hires a cockney as his manservant. No sooner has he donned his working clothes a servant begins exercising a subtle but insidious control over his master. However, the two men form a quiet bond, until a master's fiancée does no doubt the behavior of a tricky servant. A servant brings his own lady friend, whom he presents as his sister, into his master household as a maidservant. At his insistence, she seduces a young master...Most protagonists exhibit strange charm and treachery at the same time, which gives a special tone to this film. The emotions are divided between frustration and jealousy. A kind of trap for a master by his servant is poisoned by a small amount of a tense eroticism and hedonistic madness. The anxiety of a wealthy eccentric, comes to the fore in those moments.That dirty game, which leads to destruction, does not corresponds with a warmth of interiors. It is also an ironic reference to the class history and tradition.Characterization is very good. The photography fully corresponded to a melancholic soundtrack.Dirk Bogarde as Hugo Barrett is a charming and cunning servant. His sadistic and vengeful instincts contribute to that destructive moment. He is a victim of his own madness, in which he shows all his weaknesses. James Fox as Tony, a young master, is a personification of a failed ambition, arrogance, immaturity, indecision and helplessness at the end. Wendy Craig as Susan Stewart is a strong and stubborn young woman, who is lost in her pride and dignity. However, she shows a single dose of helpless pathos while flees to salvation. Sarah Miles as Vera is a "prisoner" of a dirty game.When common sense flees through the door, it is enough to turn off the light.

Losey and Pinter's first collaboration (they would continue their rapport in ACCIDENT 1967 and THE GO-BETWEEN 1970), THE SERVANT imposes an alluring tale of a subversive master-and- servant relationship, with heavy homo erotic undertones (the author of the source novel Robin Maugham is "defiantly homosexual") way ahead of its era, so it is time to revive this hidden gem to make it circulate to a more open-minded demography for its sheer marvelousness.A young aristocrat Tony (Fox) hired Barrett (Bogarde) as his servant to administer his house, but Barrett has his own plan to manipulate Tony to be completely reliant on him, so assisted by his complicit Vera (Miles), and hampered by Tony's supercilious fiancée Susan (Craig), it is a binge of seduction, betrayal, debauchery, drug abuse and mind games. Douglas Slocombe, the prestigious British cinematographer, brings the film to life with his ingenious camera-work, the setting is largely confined interior to Tony's residence (dominantly in the shots is a bookshelf-shape door to the living room, camouflage beyond the veneer is a running theme here), Slocombe is ravishing the eroticism and tautness by his superlative deployments with mirrors (it is in the poster!), shadows, shades (Tony's silhouette hiding behind the shower curtain during a hide-and-seek) and sublime focus-alteration, refracted by the B&W prism, the potency is mind-blowing and soul-cleansing, up to the very end, the transcendent oddity of the situation could only pique one's curiosity for more, for the imbroglio is so fascinating, so nihilistic, anticipates A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971, 8/10)'s benumbing ridicule.John Dankworth's alternately light-mood, lyric, jazz-infused and riveting score is a handsome companion to Pinter's satirical and pun-slinging screenplay (under the weather? poncho and gaucho?), when Tony addresses to Susan that "he (Barrett) looks like a fish", it hits the bull's eye. Bogarde continues his bold glass-ceiling-breaking endeavor after VICTIM (1961, 8/10), bags another self-revealing role and unleashes his nefarious audacious in the duality of Barrett's servant-and-master changeover; while his on-screen prey James Fox, who, indeed, is equally brilliant in this breakthrough picture, out of four main characters, none of them are good- natured, but he is the only one can collect viewers' sympathy, and one may not root for him, but witness his downfall nevertheless needs more than the fondness of his willowy figure and innocent eyes. Miles and Craig, the two female companions, can not receive the same laud, Miles has a strident voice and being excruciatingly annoying whenever she talks and her performance is in excess of theatricality, which luckily would tune down in her later effort in RYAN'S DAUGHTER (1970, 7/10) and THE HIRELING (1973, 6/10); Craig, whose snobbish and frigid poise is off-putting, albeit she has the most recondite sensibilities to present in the frenzied coda, the efficacy is beyond her ken.THE SERVANT may be Losey's finest work and should be appreciated more, it is a divine psychological drama with a latent homosexual struggle which perpetually beleaguers human nature and finally we reach the opportune time when we can look directly into each other's eyes without feeling ashamed or offensive anymore.

The book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has been a useful companion to me and helped me find hundreds of films I otherwise would not have heard or cared about necessarily, this film was naturally one I had never heard of, but I was keen to see what it was about. Basically young wealthy aristocrat Tony (James Fox) has moved to London, and recently he has hired manservant Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) for all his services at home, and his employee seems reliable, loyal and competent. Tony's girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig) does not like Barrett being in the house and wants him to be sent away, and it only gets worse when the servant's sister Vera (Sarah Miles) comes to live and work as the house, and Tony has a secret affair with her. Tony and Susan leave the house in the care of Barrett and his sister while they go to stay with some friends outside of the city, and when they return they find that the siblings are in fact, therefore they are fired, and Susan breaks up with her boyfriend due to his infidelity. Later Tony decides he does still need a hand in the house, so secretly in a pub he and Barrett talk and he rehires him, and this ignites the real intentions for the servant, he plans to slowly manipulate his employer so that he will insist on needing him and break down until their roles are reversed, so he will be the master. Also starring Catherine Lacey as Lady Mounset, Richard Vernon as Lord Mounset, Ann Firbank as Society Woman, Doris Knox as Older Woman, Patrick Magee as Bishop and Harold Pinter (also writing) as Society Man. Bogarde is obviously the big reason to see this film with his pretty chilling performance as the butler-type playing mind games on his master to rule the roost, I will confess I didn't understand everything in terms of how the villain tricks the boss to go mad and collapse, but I did like how nasty he was in the right moments, it is an interesting enough psychological drama. Good!

Barrett(Bogarde) starts working as a servant for the aristocratic and flamboyant playboy, Tony(Fox), and over time, their relationship changes and they swap roles and the balance of power is successfully shifted. The acting is incredible, with both of these leads, as well as the women they are joined by, Vera(Miles), Hugo's sister, and Susan(Craig), the master's girlfriend, who has shares a mutual resentment with the titular personage, all delivering subtle, vivid and impactful performances. Only gradually do we realize what is actually going on, and both when we think one thing and find out another, we believe these people. The hints of homosexuality are well-handled and add another layer to the manipulation. This is about the English class system and its imminent dissolution(at the time of its production), and I understand that it's not the only of such by Losey. With moody lighting, clever, lingering filming(with some nicely set up shots that show a mirror image or shadow) and smooth editing, this is expertly put together. The tension is smothering in how thick and prevalent it is. All of the music is perfectly chosen, changing in tone with the interiors of the newly furnished and painted house, as the alteration takes place. It's a very sensuous and sexy movie, without being explicit. The DVD comes with an interesting 21 minute Ian Christie's analysis of the picture(an interview intercut with clips), a 3 minute theatrical trailer, and a moderately sized photo gallery. I recommend this to anyone mature enough to appreciate it. 8/10