Dirk Bogarde made a career from playing roles in which his face, often an impassive mask, betrays emotion through almost imperceptible shifts and ticks. In The Servant, this gift for nuance is wasted in the service of a film that doesn’t seem to know where it wants to go, and thus seems to leave Bogarde unsure of whom he is supposed to be.
Ostensibly, he is Hugo Barrett, a “gentleman’s gentieman,” hired by Tony (James Fox), whose downward spiral into alcoholism is foreshadowed at their first meeting, when Barrett comes upon Tony passed out in an alcove of his recently purchased, but as yet unrenovated London townhouse. Just had “a couple beers at lunch” Tony rationalizes when awakened.
Although his expensive clothes and handsome unlined face suggest aristocratic roots, Tony’s fine exterior masks a man of weak character, one with poor judgment and a singular lack of self-discipline.
Barrett sizes Tony up quickly, and sets to work ingratiating himself with his master, whose general helplessness and almost constant drunkenness makes him an easy mark for Barrett’s schemes.
First, Barrett foments conflict between Tony and his girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig). As their relationship founders, Barrett brings a new woman into the household, Vera (Sarah Miles), whom he presents as his sister and a housekeeper. Vera’s actual purpose is to tempt and seduce Tony, which she does with pathetic ease, further alienating him from Susan and cementing his dependence on Barrett.
It is about at this point in the film when the viewer begins to wonder where things are headed.