The Servant

Drama about a wealthy young member of the Chelsea set takes on a manservant whose obliging efficiency masks sinister plans, Wealthy wastrel James Fox hires insouciant cockney Dirk Bogarde as a valet. No sooner has he donned his working clothes than Bogarde begins exercising a subtle but insidious control over his master. Suggesting that the house could use a little fixing up, Bogarde convinces Fox to spend a whopping amount of money on it. But this is just a warm-up session for Bogarde, who by mid-film is calling all the shots in the Fox household, all the while pretending to keep his place. Fox’s fiance Wendy Craig sees through Bogarde’s game. Bogarde then brings his own lady friend Sarah Miles into the house. At Bogarde’s insistence, Miles seduces Fox, thereby loosening Craig’s hold on the confused young man. And so it goes. The homosexual subtext of The Servant disturbed some of the more hidebound critics of 1963; Harold Pinter based his cryptic screenplay on a novel by Robin Maugham., A wealthy young man has just acquired a new house and a servant. On first impressions, the latter seems the perfect butler, but the young man’s fiancee is suspicious., Harold Pinter’s study of the relationship between a gentleman and his servant. Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig. Society Man: Harold Pinter. Society Woman: Ann Firbank. Older Woman: Doris Knox. Joseph Losey directed., Tony a wealthy young Londoner hires Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) as his manservant. Much to the annoyance of Tony’s girlfriend, Barrett begins a subtle but insidious control over his master.