In 1956, the Olympic Games were staged in Melbourne, bringing with them television and the curiosity of the rest of the world. Then, three years later, it fluttered unwillingly back onto the world stage for a moment when the Americans arrived to make a movie from Nevil Shute’s apocalyptic novel On the Beach. Those Americans could hardly believe the retarded, backwoods place they encountered. Ava Gardner’s cruel remark (a great place to make a movie about the end of the world) pained for a moment, but the film—although excellent—was too depressing and audiences forgot it as quickly as they could.
Now the critics and the posters were telling me that The Servant was the film to go and see, and I suppose I must have felt the need to some cultural enhancement for such things had never influenced my choices before. The names Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter would eventually be big influences in my life but I only discovered they had anything to do with the film long after they had established themselves in my mind. Dirk Bogarde was a second-rate Pommie Errol Flynn and the subtle talent of James Fox was way beyond my recognition. So I saw it, and even though I was intrigued and remembered it long after, I was also bored rigid for the whole point escaped me completely.
It was a shabby little black and white movie that didn’t seem to be about anything. I read Robin Maugham’s slight novel to try and find out what I had missed but it was just the same. I just could not understand what was marvellous about this.
You see, my perception of the upper crust was via Jeeves and Crichton so the Fox character was weak and corrupt and useless because that’s the way all people who inherit wealth are. To me, the butlers ran the aristocracy in totality and this was just a portrait of the bleeding obvious. It was just the way things were and I didn’t see what influence Barrett had over him. For me, Fox would have ended up in the same mess even if Barrett had never existed. Wasn’t there someone who said something about a little knowledge being dangerous?
