Servant, The | Blu-ray

One of the most notable victims of McCarthy-ism, Joseph Losey’s career was only just getting started when he was blacklisted from Hollywood. A true card-carrying communist, America’s loss was Europe’s gain. Losey didn’t let the lack of work in the US slow him down, directing twenty six more feature films in a career spanning four decades and working with powerhouse talents like Alain Delon, Richard Burton, and Michael Caine among many others.

Perhaps the most remarkable of his works, however, came without the support of A-list acting talents. Released in 1963, The Servant stars former matinee idol Dirk Bogarde as the manservant to a listless, wealthy young man. At first their relationship seems perfectly harmonious, but as it evolves and changes it becomes something far more destructive and sinister.

Evocatively filmed in rich black and white, with a kinetic, jazzy score, Losey brings a sure-handed stylistic palette to what otherwise might seem like a lurid melodrama, and imbues it with a sense, not just of class consciousness, but of homoerotic tension and deep seated pathos. A true visionary work.

Special Features (via criterion.com)

• 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
• PLUS: An essay by author Colm Tóibín