Sometimes it just all comes together - Dirk Bogarde expressed the desire to give a great performance in a great film, and Joe Losey came through for him, with the considerable help of Harold Pinter. It all works - the claustrophobic setting, black and white photography, music score, Sarah Miles electric performance as Bogarde's mysterious and extremely sexy (and leggy) "sister", James Fox as the weak aristocrat, Wendy Craig as the sensible girlfriend (probably the most thankless role as she is a bit of killjoy but important because she's the antagonist).
Maybe I didn't quite buy that someone like Fox would have a manservant in the first place but that's probably just me and my cultural biases. And it did feel as though it went on a bit long - maybe 20 minutes could have been cut (or maybe it's just I got weary with descent-descent-descent - Fox's weakness is hardly a challenge).
Losey's stylish direction is spot on: reflections through mirrors, careful framing, the whole "smell" of decadence. Bogarde had played rotten charmers a few times by now but never better here, with his crooked smile, superior air, lower class accent, homoerotic air around Fox, kinky relationship with Miles. One of the best things Pinter ever did.
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