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Bookmark this pageThe Servant (1963)
Director: Joseph Losey
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Losey's first bid for success as a 'prestige' director now looks embarrassingly contrived: an allegory on class conflict (derived from Robin Maugham's novel) in which Bogarde's crafty manservant achieves a sinister, game-playing role-reversal in the home of his wealthy, decadent, upper class master (Fox). Neither Pinter's pregnant dialogue nor the generally svelte performances can disguise the fact that there's less here than meets the eye and ear.Author: TR
User reviews of this film
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- Ron said...
- Posted on Aug 13 2009 04:54 Like most of Pinter's work, the characters are basically empty and do not connect emotionally. The motivation is arbitrary and in many respects implausible. There is no emotional core to the characters. But the Johnny Dankworth score, with those saxophones ruminating, is definitely cool.
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- larthefirst said...
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Posted on Aug 11 2009 20:00
When this film was released in 1963 I was eight years old here in the States. It must have had a hell of a time getting past U.S. censors.
I saw it for the first time last evening and it gave me the seem feeling of surrealism as when I saw Harol Pinter,s The HomeComing in London, when I was 23 years old. I liked the movie, but don't pretend to have it fully "diagramed". Perhaps there is an inherent "off kilter "between the American and British "English" ; not just in what's said but what's not. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Joseph Losey
Producer: Joseph Losey, Norman Priggen
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Wendy Craig, Sarah Miles, Catherine Lacey, Richard Vernon, Ann Firbank, Patrick Magee, Harold Pinter full cast
Rated: 18
Duration: 115 mins
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