The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963, UK)

The Servant is the first of three collaborations between American director Joseph Losey and British playwright Harold Pinter. Losey has one of the more interesting careers in Hollywood history - originally working in the studio system in Hollywood, he was soon exiled for political reasons and worked for an extended period in Europe. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Pinter. While The Servant is not often quoted on the lists of best films of all time, it is still highly regarded among film fans and has become something of a film lover's favorite movie.

The 1960s saw several films about outsiders entering family structures and turning them on their heads. One notable example was Pasolini's Teorema. Pinter's screenplay works with this trope. Rich playboy Tony (James Fox) hires a new manservant named Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde). Tony's girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig) immediately suspects Hugo's motives. Knowing Bogarde's personal life, it is hard not to read certain themes in the relationship between the two men. Hugo brings his girlfriend Vera (Sarah Miles) into the house. She begins seducing Tony. When Tony discovers that Vera and Hugo are a couple, he kicks them out of the house, but not before Hugo reveals Vera's relationship with Tony to Susan.

This is when the film takes a quite dark and strange turn, with Hugo being invited back into Tony's life. Hugo begins to exert control over Tony, and Tony loses all control over his life. While the overt examination here is one of class, the psychosexual dynamics of the two men's relationship is also quite apparent. A+ to cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, whose cinematography is one of the highlights of the film. The Servant is a classic for good reason and demonstrates why Bogarde was a legend.

8/10