“BOGARDE, PINTER, & LOSEY”

By Raymond Benson

You have to hand it to Kino Lorber—they are releasing an amazing number of esoteric non-mainstream titles from yesteryear that might have otherwise never made it to home video.

Case in point—Accident, a 1967 British picture directed by Joseph Losey, the American expat who fled the U.S. after being blacklisted in the early 50s. Written by the brilliant Harold Pinter (and based on the novel by Nicholas Mosley), the picture stars Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Jacqueline Sassard, Michael York, and Vivien Merchant (Pinter’s wife at the time). Although it didn’t make much headway at the box office and was little seen in America, Accident won the Jury Prize at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Given the talent roster associated with the film, it decidedly comes off as an art film emblazoned as such in neon. The script is much like Pinter’s own stage plays, the “theatre of menace,” in which lines of seemingly innocent dialogue can portend sinister subtext, and sometimes a second layer of subtext beneath that. Losey creates a moody, atmospheric tale that, on a good night, might captivate an audience. Unfortunately, on a bad night, it can also be deadly dull.

Stephen (Bogarde) is a handsome and well-liked teacher at Oxford, and he admires two of his current students—William (York), a pleasant enough chap, and especially Anna (Sassard), an exotically-gorgeous European who is allegedly a princess from somewhere. William is infatuated with Anna, and Stephen has no problem encouraging them to become a couple. The problem is that Stephen also has the hots for her, as does his colleague, Charley (Baker). Compounding the conundrum is that Stephen is married with two children and a third on the way. Thus, the story is a complex and pointed three-men-and-a-girl seduction that doesn’t go well for anyone, especially since the movie begins with a car accident involving William and Anna (the rest of the movie is a flashback leading up to it).

All of the actors are fine in their roles. Watch for a comedic cameo by Pinter, along with a young Freddie Jones, in an office scene that Douglas Adams might have written.

Kino Lorber’s high definition restoration looks quite good, and it comes with English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Film historian Kat Ellinger provides an audio commentary that augments the enigmatic drama. The only supplements are theatrical trailers for this and other Kino Lorber titles.

Accident is an acquired taste, certainly for fans of Pinter and Losey, and of edgy non-commercial British cinema of the late 60s.

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