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''The Servant'' is a 1963 British
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by Joseph Losey. It was written by Harold Pinter, who adapted
Robin Maugham Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author. Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
's 1948 novella. ''The Servant'' stars Dirk Bogarde,
Sarah Miles Sarah Miles (born 31 December 1941) is an English actress. She is known for her roles in films '' The Servant'' (1963), '' Blowup'' (1966), ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970), ''The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing'' (1973), '' White Mischief'' (1987) and '' ...
,
Wendy Craig Anne Gwendolyn "Wendy" Craig (born 20 June 1934) is an English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms ''Not in Front of the Children'', '' ...And Mother Makes Three'', '' ...And Mother Makes Five'' and ''Butterflies''. ...
and
James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', '' The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performan ...
. It opened at London's Warner Theatre on 14 November 1963. The first of Pinter's four film collaborations with Losey, ''The Servant'' is a tightly constructed film about the psychological relationships among the four central characters and examines issues relating to social class.


Plot

Wealthy Londoner Tony, who says he is part of a plan to build cities in Brazil, moves into his new house, and hires Hugo Barrett as his manservant. Barrett appears to take easily to his new job, and he and Tony form a quiet bond, retaining their social roles. Relationships begin shifting, however, when Tony's girlfriend Susan meets Barrett. She is suspicious of Barrett and asks Tony to dismiss him, but he refuses. To bring his lover, Vera, into his world, Barrett convinces Tony that the house also needs a maid. When Tony finally agrees, Barrett hires Vera on the pretext that she is his sister. Barrett encourages Vera to seduce Tony. Later, when Tony and Susan return early from a vacation, they find Barrett and Vera sleeping together. Believing that the two are siblings, he flies into a rage at Barrett, who then reveals that they are not related and she is his fiancée. He and Vera then make it clear that Tony was sleeping with her, to Susan's dismay. After Tony dismisses them, Susan departs silently. At this point, Tony has become reliant on Barrett and Vera. He becomes a drunkard, which is exacerbated by Susan's refusal to answer his calls. Eventually, Tony encounters Barrett in a pub, who spins a tale about Vera having made fools of them both. He begs Tony to re-engage him as his manservant, and he agrees. Gradually the two reverse roles, with Barrett taking more control and Tony retreating into infantilism. Barrett also insinuates Vera back into the house. Susan arrives and attempts to convince Tony to come back to her. She finds him totally dependent on Barrett who keeps him supplied with alcohol and prostitutes. She walks through the sordid scene, and suddenly kisses Barrett, who forcefully returns her attentions. As he grows more brutal, Susan struggles to free herself from his embrace, and Tony, rising from his drunken stupor, attempts to intervene. However, he trips and falls onto the floor, causing all the prostitutes to laugh at him. Tony then has an outburst and Barrett orders everyone to leave. Before departing, Susan slaps Barrett with the jeweled collar of her coat. Barrett is shocked, but quickly recovers and places her coat on her shoulder as she leaves. He then walks upstairs where Vera is waiting for him, passing Tony, who is slumped on the ground and clutching a drink.


Cast and characters


Production

The movie was directed by Joseph Losey, an American director who spent the last part of his career and life in England, after being blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s. His health was poor during production, causing Bogarde to provide significant assistance with the direction and finishing the film. The film is based on ''The Servant'', a 1948
Robin Maugham Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author. Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
novella. The screenplay, written by Harold Pinter, stripped the plot to a more economical and chilling storyline. Pinter also appeared in the film, as a restaurant patron in one scene with a speaking part. Writing for the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
, film critic
Nick James Nick or Nicholas James may refer to: * Nick James (cricketer) (born 1986), English cricketer * Nick James (critic), British film critic * Nicholas James (actor), American actor also credited as Nick James * Nick James (American football) (born 1993 ...
noted:
"It was Losey who first showed Robin Maugham's novella ''The Servant'' to Bogarde in 1954. Originally separately commissioned by director Michael Anderson, Pinter stripped it of its first-person narrator, its yellow book snobbery, and the arguably anti-Semitic characterisation of Barrett – oiliness, heavy lids – replacing them with an economical language that implied rather than stated the slippage of power relations away from Tony towards Barrett."
Losey's other collaborations with Pinter, ''
Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...
'' and ''
The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naïv ...
'', share a resemblance to ''The Servant'' in that these offer the same savage indictment of the waning English class system, a theme which had been rarely addressed in British cinema. The movie was re-released in 2013 to mark its 50th anniversary.


Reception

In 1999, the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
ranked ''The Servant'' as the 22nd greatest British film of all time. The ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' film critic suggested that ''The Servant'' was the coldest film ever made, calling it "brilliantly icy". On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it holds a rating of 90% and an average rating of 8.2/10 from 48 reviews. On Metacritic it holds an average rating of 94/100, based on the reviews of nine critics.


Music

The soundtrack by
John Dankworth Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE (20 September 1927 – 6 February 2010), also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he ...
includes the song "All Gone", sung by his wife Cleo Laine. Her three different renditions of the song provide distinct emotional impacts throughout the film. Folk guitarist
Davy Graham David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...
makes a brief cameo playing the song 'Rock Me Baby'.


Awards

* Winner, Best Cinematography -
British Society of Cinematographers The British Society of Cinematographers (abbreviated B.S.C. or BSC) was formed in 1949 by Bert Easey (23 August 1901 – 28 February 1973), the then head of the Denham and Pinewood studio camera departments, to represent British cinematographers ...
(
Douglas Slocombe Ralph Douglas Vladimir SlocombeDuncan Petrie, "Slocombe, (Ralph) Douglas Vladimir (1913–2016)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Jan 202available online Retrieved 8 July 2020. OBE, BSC, ASC, GBCT (10 Feb ...
) * Winner, Best Cinematography - BAFTA (Douglas Slocombe) * Winner, Best Actor - BAFTA ( Dirk Bogarde) * Winner, Most Promising Newcomer - BAFTA (
James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', '' The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performan ...
) * Nominee, Best Picture - BAFTA ( Joseph Losey, Norman Priggen) * Nominee, Best Actress - BAFTA (
Sarah Miles Sarah Miles (born 31 December 1941) is an English actress. She is known for her roles in films '' The Servant'' (1963), '' Blowup'' (1966), ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970), ''The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing'' (1973), '' White Mischief'' (1987) and '' ...
) * Nominee, Best Screenplay - BAFTA ( Harold Pinter) * Nominee, Most Promising Newcomer - BAFTA (
Wendy Craig Anne Gwendolyn "Wendy" Craig (born 20 June 1934) is an English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms ''Not in Front of the Children'', '' ...And Mother Makes Three'', '' ...And Mother Makes Five'' and ''Butterflies''. ...
) * Winner, Best Foreign Director -
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...
(Joseph Losey) * Winner, Best Screenplay -
New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...
(Harold Pinter) * Nominee, Best Actor - New York Film Critics Circle (Dirk Bogarde) * Nominee, Best Director - New York Film Critics Circle (Joseph Losey) * Nominee, Golden Lion - Venice International Film Festival (Joseph Losey) * Winner, Best Dramatic Screenplay - Writers Guild of Great Britain (Harold Pinter)


See also

*
BFI Top 100 British films In 1999, the British Film Institute surveyed 1,000 people from the world of British film and television to produce a list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. Voters were asked to choose up to 100 films that were "culturally British". ...
of the 20th century - #22


Notes


Further reading

* Billington, Michael. ''Harold Pinter''. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. (13). Updated 2nd ed. of ''The Life and Work of Harold Pinter''. 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. (10). Print. * Gale, Steven H. ''Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process''. Lexington. Kentucky: The UP of Kentucky, 2003. (10). (13). Print. * Gale, Steven H., ed. ''The Films of Harold Pinter''. Albany: SUNY P, 2001. . . Print. * Sargeant, Amy: ''The Servant'': Palgrave Macmillan/BFI Modern Classics: 2011: * Weedman, Christopher (2019). "A Dark Exilic Vision of 1960s Britain: Gothic Horror and Film Noir Pervading Losey and Pinter's ''The Servant''." ''Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' 58.3, pp. 93–117.


External links


"Films by Harold Pinter: The Servant 1963"
at ''HaroldPinter.org'' – ''The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter''

by Jamie Andrews, ''Harold Pinter Archive Blog'',
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, 15 June 2009. * * – Includes "Plot synopsis" {{DEFAULTSORT:Servant, The 1963 films 1963 drama films 1960s psychological thriller films British black-and-white films British drama films Films shot at Associated British Studios Films about social class Films based on British novels Films directed by Joseph Losey Films set in London Films with screenplays by Harold Pinter Films scored by John Dankworth 1960s English-language films 1960s British films