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With: Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, James Fox, Catherine Lacey, Richard Vernon, Ann Firbank, Doris Knox, Patrick Magee, Jill Melford, Alun Owen, Harold Pinter, Derek Tansley, Brian Phelan, Hazel Terry
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Written by: Harold Pinter, based on a novel by Robin Maugham
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Directed by: Joseph Losey
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
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Running Time: 115
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Date: 09/01/1963
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Butler Fingers
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Joseph Losey's The Servant is a masterful cat and mouse game between two characters -- a butler and his master -- that the BBC recently chose as one of the 100 great British films ever made. Scripted by the incomparable Harold Pinter, the film takes place almost entirely within the house, and Losey makes beautiful use of deep, angular black-and-white photography, and especially mirrors. Dirk Bogarde, with whom Losey worked five times, steals the film as Barrett, the servant, while James Fox plays the hapless master. It ends with a psychedelic (but tasteful) orgy scene. Anchor Bay has also released Losey's highly-regarded Accident, but it's only available in the three-disc Dirk Bogarde box set ($39.98, with The Servant and Basil Dearden's The Mind Benders).
The Anchor Bay DVD arrived in 2001, but the 2023 Criterion Collection Blu-ray far surpasses it, with its unbelievably lush and soft black-and-white picture. (The compositions in this thing are incredible!) It also includes an uncompressed monaural audio track, which is perfection. Bonuses include an interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith on Losey's style, excerpts from an audio interview with Losey conducted in 1976 by Michel Ciment, excerpts of a 1996 interview with screenwriter Harold Pinter, interviews with actors Bogarde, Fox, Miles, and Craig, and a trailer. Highly Recommended.
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