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Servant, The

The Servant

Barrett (Dirk Bogarde)
Tony (James Fox)
Susan (Wendy Craig)
Sister of Barrett (Sarah Miles)
Director Joseph Losey
Screenplay Harold Pinter
Produced 1963
A British Classic


This story is suspenseful in a way only the British could make it. It’s in black and white, which sets the mood. It’s nice and clean visually. The photography controls the mood. Shades of Alfred Hitchcock arose in my mind.

I confess to being an Anglophile. However, I find this movie should be admired by everyone.

Ironically, in "The Servant," the reviewer found it difficult to cheer for either the upper class or the lower class.

A single lazy playboy foppish Tony, played superbly by a newcomer, James Fox, is one of those needy upper class people. Barrett (Dirk Bogarde), a cynical-faced butler, portrays the other side of the coin, the lower class. The film basically is the conflict between upper class and lower class in England revealing the ugliness of the two classes.

Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) walks down the typical first class street to the new abode for an interview with Tony. The interview is for the position of Tony’s man servant.

Barrett sees the door of the home is open. He quietly walks in. He finds Tony sprawled out asleep on a lounge chair in the sun room. He glances over Tony’s body as though checking him out. His facial expression gives an idea of what he thinks of Tony. That’s for the viewer’s interpretation. During the interview Barrett asks what exactly does Tony want a man servant to do. Tony’s answer is, "Well...everything."

And so it goes.

Tony’s fiancée, Susan (Wendy Craig), takes a dislike to Barrett and doesn’t hide it. "He’s your servant," a horrified Susan tells a perplexed Tony, who likes the way things are going with Barrett looking after him. Susan tries to show her own touches in Tony’s home with things like flowers in vases. However, there is the fact that for weeks Barrett has been in complete charge of major decorating before her attempts. Conniving Barrett can really make a turn around and change his sneer into a kind understanding frown. It’s with concern when he asks Tony permission to bring in his "sister" to be a maid. It seems the poor girl needs help. Of course, she does. It’s the poor girl who seduces Tony and weakens Susan’s influence. Tony is having a good time, all the game playing and controlling passes right over his head.

Seduction is followed by calculating manipulation by Barrett, who is a shrewd and rather creepy manservant. If I were a man I hope I’d have more brains than to hire a weasel like Barrett.

I’d like to sneak in here a little history about England in the 1960’s. Good old English standards of upper class and lower class were being attacked.

Penguin’s attempt to publish the novel "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" in the 60’s was temporarily halted by a lawsuit. The risqué plot and dialogue involves an upper class married lady’s torrid affair with her gardener. There’s the scandal of John Perfume, Minister of War, and his affair with a showgirl, Christine Keeler, forcing him to resign his position. Homosexuality, most foul in England at that time, is suggested in a few scenes without dialogue.

Poor Tony and poor Susan. Victims of their society. How awful. How humiliating. How will it all end?

I highly recommend this disturbing story reflecting England’s class system deterioration in the l960’s.

Written by: Judith Fox

Reviewers Rating: 9.5
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