Mubi Monday: The Servant (1963)

A dark and brooding British drama, looking at the class divide and the expert manipulation of one individual by another, The Servant is uncomfortable viewing during many of the main scenes, and a bit of a classic.

Dirk Bogarde plays Barrett, a man hired by Tony (James Fox) to be his servant. Initially appearing to be quite the perfect choice for the role, Barrett is soon shown to be working on a scheme to make his life a lot better. This will involve getting a job for Vera (Sarah Miles), a woman he pretends is his sister, and trying to make the most of the household whenever he is not having to undertake the main duties of his role. Tony thinks he has found a perfect employee, while his girlfriend (Susan, played by Wendy Craig) smells a rat.

Based on a novel by Robin Maugham, The Servant was adapted into screenplay form by celebrated playwright Harold Pinter, and directed by Joseph Losey. Both men know exactly what they're doing as they dive deeper and deeper into the nightmarish atmosphere created by someone who should be a trusted member of staff. The framing of the character shows the constant, and fluid, power battle, and many individual scenes look gorgeous, even while depicting people trying to wallow in some of their more base pleasures.

There are times when Barrett is quietly and subtly making things worse for his employer, just through a "careless" word here and there, or appearing at an inopportune moment, and then there are times when Barrett is more brazen in showing his attitude. He clearly doesn't want to be a servant, but it seems to be his designated lot in life, and that may be impossible to change.

Bogarde is superb in his role, all charm and humility at the start, sliding into a more menacing persona as the plot starts to take shape. Fox is comfortable in his role, and does well in showing the kind of attitude of someone who tries to keep blinkers on while things around him start to get worse. Miles is a good match for Bogarde, and Craig excels as the only one who sees the truth of what is going on.

Commenting on class, of course, and the fact that so many "invisible" workers can hold so much power and confidence in their relationship with their employers, The Servant is a film that will also resonate with anyone who has ever been in a situation that had friends who took advantage of a bad situation while it was fun for them to be tagging along for the ride. It's a superb film, one that will haunt you long after it ends, and still feels fresh and relevant today, despite being specifically set in a fairly bygone Britain.

9/10

You can buy the movie here.

The Nanny (1965)

The Nanny is a great film, one of the very best to ever come from Hammer Studios, in my opinion. It deserves to be up there with Peeping Tom and The Innocents, it's such a fine psychological horror/drama.

Bette Davis gives the greatest performance of her career without any of the eye-rolling or razor-sharp dialogue that we've become accustomed to (and that is always thoroughly enjoyable) as she plays the titular character, an elderly woman locked in a battle of wills with a small boy named Joey (William Dix). Joey has been away from home for two years, after his younger sister tragically died in the household bathtub, and returns with the same bad attitude he went away with. He blames everything on the nanny and sets out to remove her power at every turn.

What is the reality of the situation? An evil young lad forcing an elderly woman to squirm under his fist or a manipulative old woman doing her best to silence her young charge? The movie is impressively ambiguous for the first hour or so until we get to a finale that manages to shock, disturb and churn a stomach more effectively than many of the most modern releases.

An incredibly brave, complex psychological horror, this movie unsettles in almost every scene, whether it's due to the behaviour of an unruly child or watching a sad mother (played by Wendy Craig) revert to a state more childish than her own son. The supporting cast - including Jill Bennett, James Villiers and Pamela Franklin - are solid but this really boils down to an amazing two-hander between a petulant child and . . . for the love of God . . . BETTE DAVIS! Hard to believe that this movie was released by "the studio that dripped blood" and even harder to believe that many people may be unfamiliar with it.

Director Seth Holt treats the material well, but he's given a flying start by the fantastic script from Jimmy Sangster (adapting the novel by Marryam Modell). What starts off as a look at a stiff, unsympathetic family unit with a brat at its core slowly but surely turns into something mesmerising, tense and also quite sad. See this film as soon as you can, it's an absolute classic.

NB - the ONLY reason I don't give the movie a perfect 10/10 score is because of my gut instinct to Joey's brattish behaviour in the first half of the movie.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nanny-DVD-Bette-Davis/dp/B000KRMZPG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369042213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+nanny