Dir: Joseph Losey | Wri: Harold Pinter | UK Drama
Although generally attributed to Joseph Losey it should always be borne in mind that there were three intellects behind this film.
It makes much more sense if one is aware that it originated with a novella by Robin Maugham, who admitted that it was based on an episode when he was a young man when a butler introduced a good-looking young ‘nephew’ into the household and the book is a speculation on what might have happened had he risen to the bait; and certainly makes one view the ‘fiancé’ played by Sarah Miles in a new light.
Also with a claim to authorship was Harold Pinter who supplied the sly humour (such as the venomous arguments of the two bachelors forced to cohabit); while Maugam derisively sneered upon viewing (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) the climactic orgy that the script was plainly the work of a simple working class lad “who’d never been to an orgy in his life!”
Finally the element of serendipity dictated the considerable visual impact supplied by a London shrouded in snow by the great winter of 1963 that the film of ‘The Caretaker’ had also recently benefitted from.
Losey arrived in England in 1951 at the onset of MacCarthyism, realising that his career was over, to all intents and purposes, in the States.
The Servant is a classic film and groundbreaking for several reasons. Losey brought with him a completely different approach, doing away the rather staid practices over here and bringing something new and fresh to the table. He is also responsible for discovering both Edward and James Fox.
With music by John Dankworth and his cinematographer of choice Douglas Slocombe, Losey got hold of Robin Maugham’s novel, which Pinter had previously made into a play, and then adapted further into a screenplay. They almost came to blows over the finished script, but Losey persisted and it proved time well-spent; The Servant is a remarkable film.
Good timing too for Dirk Bogarde, who had long since tired of stock ‘leading man’ roles and wanted something a bit more interesting and dirtier to get his teeth into. Great turns also by a host of household names, Sarah Miles, Patrick Magee, Wendy Craig, Annie Firbank and even Pinter himself.
The Servant centres on an aristocrat (Fox) not long back in the country, who has bought a London townpad and feels the need for a manservant; an already outdated notion in the early Sixties. The film opens with potential, Bogarde, approaching the house for his interview. What follows is a brilliant concoction of Pinter’s dialogue, Losey’s direction and two very handsome actors at the top of their game.
Exploring myriad themes of the day: the class divide; the bankruptcy of the aristocracy; the moral bankruptcy of the working classes; the sexual revolution; homosexuality and a general shaking off of the value system of the day, principally, this is a film about power. Heady stuff, the impact of which cannot be underestimated, in terms of both content and style, on work to come thereafter.
Losey is quoted thus: ‘Films can illustrate our existence…they can distress, disturb and provoke people into thinking about themselves and certain problems. But not give the answers’. It’s a complex piece with many characters, none of whom escape untarnished and is all the better for it. Gone are the stock stereotypes of yore, where it was easy to know.
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