The Servant takes a sharp look at British class relations via a dramatic turning of the tables between a rich ineffectual Oxbridge bachelor (James Fox) who is gradually debased and overruled by his sinister manservant (Dirk Bogarde) and his sexy sister (Sarah Miles). Bogarde's servant slowly realises and exploits his expanding powers over his master as Fox steadily loses his authority and becomes enslaved to his own employee.

Celebrated director Joseph Losey (who would go on to direct two other classic Harold Pinter adaptations - The Go-Between and Accident) received the Silver Ribbon Award for Best Director - Foreign Film from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, while Pinter won Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critic's Circle Awards for this film version. The Servant remains a superb, shadowy study of brooding decadence.