The Servant (1963) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Joseph Losey
Writer: Harold Pinter (screenplay), Robin Maugham (novel 'The Servant')
Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig

The prolific, ever-provocative Joseph Losey, blacklisted from Hollywood and living in England, delivered a coolly modernist shock to the system of that nation’s cinema with this mesmerizing dissection of class, sexuality, and power. A dissolute scion of the upper crust (James Fox) finds the seemingly perfect manservant (a diabolical Dirk Bogarde, during his transition from matinee idol to art-house icon) to oversee his new London town house. But not all is as it seems, as traditional social hierarchies are gradually, disturbingly destabilized. Lustrously disorienting cinematography and a masterful script by playwright Harold Pinter merge in The Servant, a tour de force of mounting psychosexual menace.

Extras:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New program on director Joseph Losey by film critic Imogen Sara Smith
- Rare interview with Losey, conducted by critic Michel Ciment in 1976
- Interview from 1996 with screenwriter Harold Pinter
- Interviews with actors Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, and Wendy Craig
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing