The Servant (1965)

"Glaciers might be melting, the polar caps might be crumbling, but not even the passage of half a century has taken the frozen edge off this brilliantly icy film."

"The film on its most meaningful level is acid splashed into the wound of class distinction. But it is best enjoyed simply as a slick, spooky, frequently spellbinding study of corruption."

"The film's sidelong narrative glances suggest a privileged world brimming with innuendo-laden excess and barely concealed sexual jealousies."

"It is a brilliant, subversive account of class relations and the changing times."

"Losey creates an atmosphere of deepening claustrophobic menace shot through with episodes of savage black humour."

"Opaque but hypnotically absorbing..."

"The Servant is for the most part strong dramatic fare, though the atmosphere and tension is not fully sustained..."

"Certainly difficult to define, this period piece messes with genres, power relationships and your head."

"The performances are note-perfect and Pinter's script is smart, subversive and sly..."

"It is a flesh-creeping demonstration of human destructiveness that Mr. Pinter and Mr. Losey (present)... made all the more horrifying by the genteel surroundings in which it occurs."

"The film is very studied and smooth, even though it deals in sexual hysteria; it could use some of the roughness and drive of Losey's early work."