''The Hireling'' is a 1973 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

Alan Bridges Alan Bridges (28 September 1927 – 7 December 2013) was an English film and television director. In 1967 Bridges directed a television adaptation of Charles Dickens' ''Great Expectations'' starring Gary Bond as Pip. He won the ''Grand Pri ...

, based on a 1957 novel of the same title by

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

, which starred Robert Shaw and Sarah Miles. It tells the story of a

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to special ...

who falls in love with an aristocratic woman. It shared the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

with ''

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesle ...

'' at the

1973 Cannes Film Festival The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to ''Scarecrow'' by Jerry Schatzberg and ''The Hireling'' by Alan Bridges. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were ...

. Sarah Miles received a Special Jury Prize for her performance as Lady Franklin."Cannes Jury Prize to Sarah Miles" (10 July 1973) ''Los Angeles Times''

Plot

Set in and around

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

immediately after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the story opens at an expensive mental clinic in the country where the young and recently widowed Lady Franklin is being discharged. The owner of a smart hire car, former sergeant-major Ledbetter, chauffeurs her to her unsympathetic mother in Bath. Hired to take her on outings, he becomes the only person she can talk to as she slowly lifts out of deep depression. When he takes her to a boxing night at a boys club that he helps to run, she meets another committee member, the young former officer Cantrip. Like Ledbetter he is struggling to return to normal, in his case politics, after his traumatic experiences in the war. Cantrip starts wooing the wealthy Lady Franklin while still sleeping with his lover Connie, who is probably a war widow. Ledbetter's mental equilibrium becomes progressively more fragile. His business is failing, his casual relationship with the waitress Doreen brings no joy, his deepening affection for Lady Franklin is no longer returned and his rage against his more successful rival is intensified by Cantrip's concealed involvement with Connie. When he finally confronts Cantrip and Lady Franklin together, they tell him that he has no place in their lives because they have become engaged. Leaping into his

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

and swigging frequently from a bottle of alcohol, he drives blindly back to his garage and proceeds to run amok in the little courtyard, driving heedlessly back and forth into the walls and reversing and on and on like an animal in a frenzy in a cage.

Cast

* Robert Shaw as Steven Ledbetter * Sarah Miles as Lady Franklin *

Peter Egan Peter Joseph Egan (born 28 September 1946) is a British actor and animal rights activist. He is known for his television roles, including Hogarth in ''Big Breadwinner Hog'', the future George IV of the United Kingdom in ''Prince Regent'' (1979 ...

as Captain Hugh Cantrip * Caroline Mortimer as Connie *

Elizabeth Sellars Elizabeth Macdonald Sellars (6 May 1921 – 30 December 2019) was a Scottish actress. Early life and education Sellars was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Stephen Sellars and Jean Sutherland. She appeared on the stage from the age o ...

as Lady Franklin's mother * Ian Hogg as Davis *

Christine Hargreaves Christine Hargreaves (22 March 1939 – 12 August 1984) was an English actress who was known for portraying the role of Christine Hardman on the ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'' from 1960 to 1963. After attending the Royal Academy of D ...

as Doreen * Lyndon Brook as Doctor * Patricia Lawrence as Mrs. Hansen *

Petra Markham Petra Mavis Markham (born 17 March 1944 in Prestbury, Cheshire) is a British theatre, television and film actress. She is a daughter of actor David Markham and writer Olive Dehn (1914–2007). She has three sisters: actress Kika Markham, Sonia ...

as Edith

Themes

Loneliness is the first main theme of the film and with it the profound effects on mental balance of bereavement and post-combat stress. All three principals are desperately lonely and insecure. While Lady Franklin had isolation and medical treatment at the clinic, both Ledbetter and Cantrip are fighting the traumas of the war on their own. Neither man finds the woman he occasionally sleeps with satisfactory. As Cantrip and Lady Franklin discover a sort of love together, Ledbetter's increasingly unstable life unravels. The second main theme is class and money. Lady Franklin, widow of a baronet, has a large country house and a comfortable income. Cantrip's life is considerably more precarious but by marrying a rich and socially superior woman he will enter the landed gentry. Ledbetter, a working class man with no capital who rose as far as he was likely to get in the army, in civilian life ranks little above a cab driver.

Reception

'' at the

. Special Jury Prize awarded to Sarah Miles. "''

France-Soir ''France Soir'' ( en, France Evening) was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a popu ...

'' said: 'The acting in the English film "The Hireling" has been the best seen during the festival. Sarah Miles and Robert Shaw are magnificent. "Unseen last week when I listed the five best films thus far of 1973 but which I most emphatically want to add to the list are: 'THE HIRELING'." "...here we are just barely into the last half of 1973 and already in the past two weeks I've named nine films I think will end up on My TEN BEST list come December." Natasha Kroll won the BAFTA for art direction in 1974 for her work on The Hireling. I thought "The Hireling," that won the prize over my film in Cannes, was sentimental muck. Do they think they're being subtle because Sarah Miles never goes to bed with her chauffeur? ...That is not sour grapes. ...And I don't think "The Hireling" will be as successful as my film at the box-office. You can fool the critics but you can't fool the public. –

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for ...

on not winning for ''

O Lucky Man! ''O Lucky Man!'' is a 1973 British comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, whom McDowell had first played as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film performance in Ander ...

'' at Cannes. "If ''The Hireling'' did have to be viewed in political terms it would certainly misfire. ...Fortunately, Bridges allows us to see both Shaw and Miles as human beings... Sarah Miles, in fact, though her role would seem to allow only a narrow range of expression, gives by far the finest performance of her career." THE HIRELING' (could easily win an Oscar nomination for Sarah Miles if–and this is a big IF! – her personal popularity at least as I understand it, doesn't eliminate her)."

Joyce Haber Joyce Haber (1931–1993) was an American gossip columnist who worked for the '' Los Angeles Times''. Haber was one of Hollywood's last powerful gossip columnists who "were capable of canonizing a film or destroying a star". She took over the ol ...

, of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "Special Categories – Worst Performances by Any Female Star: Sarah Miles for 'Cat Dancing' and 'The Hireling'."

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...

called ''The Hireling'', "an unrecognized, masterly work of art. "...a fastidious attention to detail, an almost documentary precision, ...studded with objects evocative of a lost age." "The director - that impressionable Liverpool child - is Alan Bridges. ...What appealed to Bridges about 'The Hireling', which starred Sarah Miles as an aristocratic young widow and Robert Shaw as her chauffeur, was the violent deceptions upon which their relationship was based." "The results are haunting - thanks to an unusually subtle script and fine performances from all concerned." "Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, Elizabeth Sellars and a first-rate cast take dead aim at the British class system in a withering adaptation of the L.P. Hartley novel about a chauffeur who helps draw an upper-class woman out of her chronic depression in the mistaken impression she loves him." "Robert Shaw plays a chauffeur who helps an upper-class woman (Sarah Miles) out of a mental depression, but mistakenly assumes she is interested in him. Rated three stars.""Footnotes for Videophiles" (19 May 1990) ''The Vancouver Sun''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hireling, The 1973 films 1970s historical drama films British historical drama films Films based on British novels Films directed by Alan Bridges Palme d'Or winners Films scored by Marc Wilkinson Films set in Bath, Somerset Columbia Pictures films Films with screenplays by Wolf Mankowitz 1973 drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films