The Servant

Name: The Servant
Genre: Drama
Released: March 16, 1964
Duration: 116 min
Rating: 93
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig

1964

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 8 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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7.7

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7.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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THE SERVANT

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Movie Details & Credits

Unrated

Landau Releasing Organization (LRO) | Release Date: March 16, 1964

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig

Summary: The Servant looks at the decaying British class system through the relationship between an aristocrat and his scheming butler.

Director: Joseph Losey

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Unrated

Runtime: 116 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Total Film - Philip Kemp

Losey creates an atmosphere of deepening claustrophobic menace shot through with episodes of savage black humour. Read full review

100

Time Out London - Tom Huddleston

It’s one of the most insightful films ever made about the British class system. Read full review

100

The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw

It is a brilliant, subversive account of class relations and the changing times. Read full review

The New York Times - Bosley Crowther

Its account of patrician degradation will cause you to blink your eyes. Although it is only fiction, it wafts a thick and acrid air of smoldering truth. Read full review

Village Voice - Zachary Wigon

Mixing techniques as surely as it mixes class (graceful dolly shots are placed side by side with the handheld photography), the picture's clever formalist juxtapositions evoke the hysterical confusion of a culture in upheaval. Read full review

Variety - Staff [Not Credited]

The Servant is for the most part strong dramatic fare, though the atmosphere and tension is not fully sustained to the end. Read full review

Empire - Adam Smith

Certainly difficult to define, this period piece messes with genres, power relationships and your head. Read full review

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Mixed:

User Reviews

EpicLadySponge

May 1, 2016

The Servant, at least, looks like those classical films that are actually worth watching. I finally get to enjoy something from the Servant and we all know how these films usually end up being great.

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Trailesque

Jul 21, 2017

A dissolute young gentleman begins to fall under the spell of his butler in this fascinating look at class and relationships in early 1960s London. It was based on a play by the great Harold Pinter, and he specialized in these murky tales of power relationships between men. Fox is perfectA dissolute young gentleman begins to fall under the spell of his butler in this fascinating look at class and relationships in early 1960s London. It was based on a play by the great Harold Pinter, and he specialized in these murky tales of power relationships between men. Fox is perfect as the unfocused upper class fellow, and Bogarde is fine but seems a little miscast. Craig and Miles are solid as a young lady and a cheerful tramp respectively. Director Losey and cinematographer Slocombe do a great job of making a pretty basic set (a London townhouse) visually stimulating.… Expand

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lasttimeisaw

Nov 16, 2013

Losey and Pinter’s first collaboration (they would continue their rapport in ACCIDENT 1967 and THE GO-BETWEEN 1970), THE SERVANT imposes an alluring tale of a subversive master-and-servant relationship, with heavy homo erotic undertones (the author of the source novel Robin Maugham isLosey and Pinter’s first collaboration (they would continue their rapport in ACCIDENT 1967 and THE GO-BETWEEN 1970), THE SERVANT imposes an alluring tale of a subversive master-and-servant relationship, with heavy homo erotic undertones (the author of the source novel Robin Maugham is “defiantly homosexual”) way ahead of its era, so it is time to revive this hidden gem to make it circulate to a more open-minded demography for its sheer marvelousness.

A young aristocrat Tony (Fox) hired Barrett (Bogarde) as his servant to administer his house, but Barrett has his own plan to manipulate Tony to be completely reliant on him, so assisted by his complicit Vera (Miles), and hampered by Tony’s supercilious fiancée Susan (Craig),
it is a binge of seduction, betrayal, debauchery, drug abuse and mind games.

Douglas Slocombe, the prestigious British cinematographer, brings the film to life with his ingenious camerawork, the setting is largely confined interior to Tony’s residence (dominantly in the shots is a bookshelf-shape door to the living room, camouflage beyond the veneer is a running theme here), Slocombe is ravishing the eroticism and tautness by his superlative deployments with mirrors (it is in the poster!), shadows, shades (Tony’s silhouette hiding behind the shower curtain during a hide-and-seek) and sublime focus-alteration, refracted by the B&W prism, the potency is mind-blowing and soul-cleansing, up to the very end, the transcendent oddity of the situation could only pique one’s curiosity for more, for the imbroglio is so fascinating, so nihilistic, anticipates A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971, 8/10)’s benumbing ridicule.

John Dankworth’s alternately light-mood, lyric, jazz-infused and riveting score is a handsome companion to Pinter’s satirical and pun-slinging screenplay (under the weather? poncho and gaucho?), when Tony addresses to Susan that “he (Barrett) looks like a fish”, it hits the bull’s eye. Bogarde continues his bold glass-ceiling-breaking endeavor after VICTIM (1961, 8/10), bags another self-revealing role and unleashes his nefarious audacious in the duality of Barrett’s servant-and-master changeover; while his on-screen prey James Fox, who, indeed, is equally brilliant in his breakthrough picture, out of four main characters, none of them are good-natured, but he is the only one can collect viewers’ sympathy, and one may not root for him, but witness his downfall nevertheless needs more than the fondness of his willowy figure and innocent eyes. Miles and Craig, the two female companions, can not receive the same laud, Miles has a strident voice and being excruciatingly annoying whenever she talks and her performance is in excess of theatricality, which luckily would tune down in her later effort in RYAN’S DAUGHTER (1970, 7/10) and THE HIRELING (1973, 6/10); Craig, whose snobbish and frigid poise is off-putting, albeit she has the most recondite sensibilities to present in the frenzied coda, the efficacy is beyond her ken.

THE SERVANT may be Losey’s finest work and should be appreciated more, it is a divine psychological drama with a latent homosexual struggle which perpetually beleaguers human nature and finally we reach the opportune time when we can look directly into each other’s eyes without feeling ashamed or offensive anymore.… Expand

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