The early influence of Harold Pinter

The Servant, Joseph Losey (director), Harold Pinter (writer), Dirk Bogarde and James Fox

By Stephen Pate

The world notes with sadness the passing of the great British playwright Harold Pinter. Personally, Pinter was an early influence that I intend to renew. My exposure to him was only through movies. Fortunately Halifax has a strong British culture. One could see almost all of the great British and foreign films with only some diligence to the Sunday art cinema at the Hyland Theatre.

My first Pinter film was “The Servant” with Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles and James Fox, a darkly immoral film to my mind at the time. Pinter was the writer from a book by Robin Maugham. I was so intrigued by the plot, character development and cinematographer I saw it numerous times. Losey framed emotionally charged scenes, like the one above, as reflections which was visually arresting.

My second Pinter film, which he wrote, was a noir tale “The Caretaker” which epitomized Pinter for me. Starring Donald Pleasance, Alan Bates and Robert Shaw. The movie felt like an play with an interior view bounded by walls. The outside shots were out of place and seemed another world. The characters were dense, evolving and often outside the morals of a young boy. The movie was intriguing and expressed the existential and socialist philosophy of post-war England.

The Accident, Joseph Losey(director), Harold Pinter (writer), Dirk Bogarde and Michael York

My next Pinter film, his second with Joseph Losey, was “The Accident” with Michael York and Dirk Bogarde. Again Pinter excelled at subtle character development with understated British dialogue. The vacuous lives of the protagonists gave the movie an empty feeling contrasted with the sumptuous color of the British countryside. Even on second viewing, the tension and characters held me yet I wanted to leave the film to avoid the impending tragedy.

My last Pinter film was “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” which I could have skipped. It felt like an update of A Man And A Woman without the music. It never engaged me in the plot or the characters.

I’d like to see the Servant again.