The Servant
by Joseph Losey
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Catherine Lacey, Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy CraigDirector: Joseph Losey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-12-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of The Servant
Movie Review: Angus Hudson would be shocked
Summary: 5 Stars
A "gentleman's man," Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde), is hired as a personal manservant by a rich layabout, Tony (James Fox). At first deferential, Barrett takes control of Tony's London apartment and soon becomes indispensable. Tony's fianc?e, the imperious and repressed Susan (Wendy Craig), sees Barrett as a suffocating presence and treats him badly. Not long after, Barrett brings his "sister' Vera (Sarah Miles) into the house as a live-in maid. Subtly, but assuredly, he turns Tony's attention from Susan to Vera, and orchestrates Vera's seduction of Tony. Through more underhanded tricks, Barrett causes the break-up of Tony's and Susan's relationship. His psychological manipulations of Tony increase in severity until he has reduced him to a simpering and depraved alcoholic, barely able to stand up, much less regain his authority. Suddenly, the dynamics have changed-the servant has now become the master.
A cruel and unusual film that still defies the norm forty-four years later, "The Servant" mercilessly skewers the English upper class and serves them up for lunch. Largely regarded as an allegory for the declining morals of what was then becoming an obsolete master-servant society, it pulls the gloves off, strips the veneer of respectability, and rankles your nerves raw. It's grim, edgy and borders on the Avant-garde. Depicting a spoiled man and his manservant in a time and place when servants were expected to attend to their employers' every desire yet disappear into the woodwork when not wanted, the master's destruction through his servant's treachery is both satisfying and disturbing. There is a great deal of ambiguity in this film, which invites one to speculate on Barrett's motivations and Tony's submissiveness. This could prove frustrating for some, but I found it rather stimulating. Not a mainstream film, maybe not even back in 1964, it's a pessimistic view of humanity; noir-ish, intense and cryptic.
As an outstanding example of the power of suggestion and cinematic craft, the film never shows the sexual depravity and sexual manipulations prevalent in the story. No actor is shown in any state of undress and there isn't a single sexually explicit scene. However, one clearly knows they're happening by the oblique and suggestive use of objects and people that by themselves mean nothing, yet when seen in the context of Barrett's devious machinations, relay the spiraling down into immorality. Most of the topics dealt with in this film were daring at that time. To deal with these merely by suggestion is a far more difficult task. The fact that the film succeeds in doing so brilliantly says much for the talents of its actors, director Joseph Losey, and playwright Harold Pinter. The passage of time has not lessened its significance and it's a technically superior film that still manages to fascinate. The issue of class conflicts may no longer be relevant, but the issues of power and moral corruption certainly are, and some would say even more so now.
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