Accident
1967
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Harold Pinter
Based on the novel by Nicholas Mosley
Cinematography by Gerry Fisher
Music by John Dankworth
CAST
Dirk Bogarde- Stephen, Oxford philosophy professor
Stanley Baker- Charley, Oxford professor with a TV show
Jacqueline Sassard – Anna von Graz
Michael York – William, an aristocratic student
Vivien Merchant- Rosalind, Stephen’s wife
Harold Pinter – Bell, TV Executive
Delphine Seyrig – Francesca
Alexander Knox – Provost
Ann Firbank- Laura, Charley’s wife
The 60s retrospective series continues …
Filmed in July 1966, released in the UK in February 1967. Filmed partly in St John’s College, Oxford (the location used in two of our ELT videos, A Weekend Away and Double Identity.) I saw this at least three times, first when it came out, then again when I was at the University of East Anglia in 1969/70 (probably film club) when pipe puffing professors in brown tweedy jackets with Georgian houses rang bells for me. I saw it once on TV in the 70s. It’s been a long time.
It’s one of the three Joseph Losey / Harold Pinter collaborations along with The Servant and The Go-Between. Let us forget that Pinter was alleged to be an uncredited script doctor on Modesty Blaise. Harold Pinter appears in Accident as the TV executive, and his then wife, Vivien Merchant, plays Dirk Bogarde’s wife, Rosalind. Novelist Nicholas Moseley also got a role as Don Hedges (I’m not sure who that was).
The quality of the dialogue with so much “between lines” is classic Pinter, awash with undercurrents of unsaid anger, jealousy, loathing. The unusual shape of the film, with the biggest piece of drama, the car crash, opening the film, with most of the story in flashback, comes from Nicholas Moseley’s 1963 novel. The ending, with Dirk Bogarde’s character taking advantage of the shell-shocked crash survivor, Anna, was not in the book and apparently upset Moseley.
There were complaints about the structure, but it all seems abundantly clear … once we’ve flash backed, the rest of the story unfolds in chronological order to the end.
Oxford … with some digression
Dirk Bogarde as Stephen
It’s set in the 1960s Oxford academic community, with an eternal triangle … sorry, as in Darling, also with Dirk Bogarde … eternal quartet. Everyone is posh, and Pinter is having some fun here. The only pleb in sight is the police sergeant for a very brief scene after the initial crash. We have two Oxford professors sparring throughout. Dirk Bogarde is Stephen, a philosophy professor. Stanley Baker is Charley, an archaeology professor.
Stephen and Rosalind’s house
Both characters are extremely wealthy by any standard. Stephen’s Georgian country house is huge. I looked up locations and the one used was in Surrey, but we have to imagine it’s close to Oxford. The glimpse we have of Charley’s house looks as if it’s original Tudor. Was this Pinter’s view of Oxford salaries? Though in my experience a lot of people enjoyed the prestige of the professorial role because they had wealthy parents behind them. You can see that Charley with successful novels, and let’s assume that his archaeology TV show was along the lines of Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, would be well-off. Lecturers at the time boasted to me that doing American summer schools could double your income, but even so …
Pinter has other fish to fry with Oxford. When we first see Stephen in the common room, we get this conversation:
CHARLEY: (reading) A statistical analysis of sexual intercourse at Colenso University, Milwaukee showed… that 70% did it in the evening, 29.9% between 2 and 4 in the afternoon and 0.1% during a lecture on Aristotle.
PROVOST: I’m surprised to hear that Aristotle is on the syllabus in the State of Wisconsin.
While I laughed (and it’s the only quote in IMDB), it’s exactly the sort of snotty comment about American universities that annoys me. My son was at Northwestern, and had around 25-30 contact hours a week for four years (School of Speech). My daughter at Southampton, UK, often had just two hours a week in Social Sciences, one on Monday, one on Friday … though my younger son doing Physics at Southampton had around 25-30 too. British university teachers in arts and social sciences really should not knock American counterparts. We were filming Double Identity in Oxford at an ancient college, and my older son was a production runner (while doing American SAT II’s and applying to US universities). He was given the task of guarding the lunch buffet for cast and crew in a room off the quadrangle. He said dons walked in throughout the morning, helped themselves to food, and when he protested said “I’m professor of (whatever)” and carried on. I said to him, ‘Well you’ve seen Oxford, what do you think of it?’ He replied, ‘I would never want to be taught by these arrogant bastards!’
Another bit was Stephen’s teaching methods (which Oxbridge graduate friends have complained about). He shares a sherry, chats, then gives Anna and William a pile of books each, and says “Read these.” It has been said that if you take your students from (a) elite public schools (b) the very brightest of the rest, you can leave them to teach themselves. Bung ’em a booklist. Bugger off to the library. As a teacher, it’s a method that makes me incensed. Incidentally, I missed a number of my one-to-one MA seminars because my “successful novelist and scriptwriter pipe puffing tutor in a tweed jacket with leather patches” also had a radio programme on the assigned afternoon which took priority. All in all, Pinter pinned a lot.
The two students are even posher than their profs. William (Michael York) is aristocracy … judging by his stately home, at least the son of an earl if not a duke. Anna von Graz (Jacqueline Sassard) is referred to as an Austrian princess, though Stephen adds, ‘not exactly a princess.’
Production values
One of the problems for a modern audience is that TV long ago caught up with this scale of production … Brideshead Revisited was on a much grander scale in 1981. In 2020, TV series like Flesh & Blood can get the intimacy and indeed technical quality with ease.If you were pitching Accident in 2020, it would be a two (BBC) or three (ITV because of the ads) part serial, preferably on successive Sunday evenings.
Losey’s direction is unusual and influential here … which is maybe why TV can do something similar on a regular basis. He takes his time. He cuts unusually … for most directors, he cuts late … leaving us to ponder on scenes after the dialogue or action. The pace is languid.
The original book used narration. Pinter got rid of it, but there’s a sequence where Stephen looks up his old flame, the Provost’s daughter. We hear their dialogue, but on film they’re not speaking. Then they go into a restaurant, and we look through the window and we see them speaking, but we can’t hear anything. Then they go back to her house (Bedford Square, London, incredibly posh) and again, we can hear their dialogue, but they’re not moving their mouths. Intriguing.
Plot
Stephen (Dirk Bogarde) and William (Michael York). College goat outside.
Stephen has two philosophy students, William, a self-confident and friendly aristocrat (Michael York) and Anna (Jacqueline Sassard), an Austrian aristocrat. Teaching is the glass of sherry style. He asks William why he’s studying philosophy if he’s going to be a “farmer” (i.e, run a massive agricultural estate) and William replies,’So I can talk to the cows.’ William fancies Anna and Stephen offers to introduce them, but William declines.
Anna (Jacqueline Sassard). This is how so many teachers assume we will be listened to …
Anna is arriving, stopping to admire the college goat in the quadrangle … there wasn’t one in reality, but it’s a further Pinter comment on Oxford’s peculiarity. We see the academics sitting around the common room, which introduces Charley and the Provost.
Anna and William
As Stephen walks by the river, he’s invited into a punt with William and Anna (so William has chatted her up) . Stephen gets wet by standing up by a tree branch and trudges back to college with them. He asks his pregnant wife, Rosalind (Vivien Merchant) if he can invite them to Sunday lunch, as one does.
When Sunday arrives, Stephen returns to the house and finds Charley in the garden sitting on his open top car bearing whisky and gin. He has not been invited but invites himself. He appears to know Anna. Anna is playing with the kids. William is helping Rosalind in the kitchen.
Sunday lunch. Charley (Stanley Baker) and Rosalind (Vivien Merchant)
You can hate your best friend. Throughout Stephen and Charley are old friends on the surface, though just below that surface, Stephen has realized that the newly-separated Charley is living the life he wants. Charley’s also a novelist, and he has a TV show and he’s shagging his students. Charley even has that neat sports car while Stephen has a staid Morris Minor Traveller.
Stephen (Dirk Bogarde) and Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) go for a walk … not another bloody cornfield in a 60s film!
An after lunch walk has Anna walking with Stephen. A telling moment, standing hands on a gate, inches apart. We don’t need lines … we know Stephen is quivering to take her hand. We don’t see more. Cut.
Stephen and Charley (Stanley Baker) argue over a light supper of wine, whisky, gin and vodka.
Stephen invites everyone to a cold supper. Stephen wants to emulate Charley’s TV success … he boasts drunkenly that he is meeting a TV executive next week.
In loco parentis for both dons consists of pouring wine, beer then spirits into their students until William collapses in a stupor. Anna offers to drive … and Charley knows she hasn’t a licence. How? All stay overnight … Stephen sees someone disappearing up to the attic floor where the spare bedrooms are.
High hopes. Stephen waiting at the BBC Television Centre
London. The BBC TV centre. The executive is ill, and Stephen is sent off to find an assistant, Bell (Harold Pinter)
Harold Pinter as Bell
Bell is an ex-student and asks him how Francesca, the provost’s daughter is. Then is called to visit his sick boss. No more BBC for Stephen. He decides to look up Francesca (Delphine Seyrig ). They go to bed.
Francesca (Delphine Seyrig). These people drink A LOT. Note the Francesca-Anna contrast in age, hair colour, style …
He returns home. Rosalind is away, and he finds Charley (wearing Stephen’s dressing gown on the stairs). A female figure appears, head in shadow … we wonder whether it’s Rosalind. But no, it’s Anna. Charley broke in knowing the house was empty. Charley takes advantage, and knows he can. Stephen takes it calmly on the surface … even offering the use of the house the next weekend.
Charley (Stanley Baker) and Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) ; ‘Is that my dressing gown?’
Stephen visits William’s stately home where a Hooray Henry version of the Eton Wall Game takes place among the statues on the marble floor. Stephen is made to go in goal while they form a scrum and thump each other.
Stephen in goal (foreground)
We realize just how rich William is.
Stephen and the Provost (Alexander Knox). ‘Francesca?’
We move to a cricket match. There’s a stilted conversation between Stephen and the Provost (Alexander Knox). Stephen mentions he’s seen Francesca. ‘Francesca?’ queries the Provost. ‘Your daughter,’ he replies. That’s such typical Pinter characterisation. One might ask the question if the daughter was named ‘Sue’ or ‘Anne’ but hardly for Francesca.
Charley and William are batting together. Charley is bowled out … then William tells Stephen that he and Anna are getting married. (Yes, Charley has been bowled out). William asks to come and see Stephen after a party that evening.
At the cricket match. William (Michael York) announces the forthcoming marriage. Anna simply stares Stephen down.
End of flashback … we are back to the accident outside the house, with Stephen pulling Anna out of the car. William is dead … an anguished Stephen watches her high heel … ‘You’re stepping on his face!’ Anna was driving, he assumes, and both were drunk. He hides Anna upstairs and calls the police. Anna is zombie like. He presses his advances on her.
Stephen and Anna – she’s semi-comatose
Stephen drives her to her college and helps her climb the wall. We see her packing to go back to Austria, watched by Charley and Stephen. There’s a surprise ending where on a sunny day, Stephen hears the sound of an accident in the lane outside the house.
OVERALL
It lives up to its reputation. Bogarde and Baker turn in such contrasting performaces, circling around each other. Michael York sets the template for a few of his films … he does it very well.
It’s all in the eyes. She doesn’t need to say much, and it preserves her enigma.
Jaqueline Sassard has few lines, does them in a mild French accent and makes no attempt at an Austrian accent, but it’s 1967, it’s Britain, it’s all foreign. She looks great though. Expressions are all she needs. I’m surprised that Losey didn’t simply rename her as a French aristocrat.
SOUNDTRACK
The use of low volume real sounds (bells, birds, gavel, footsteps) is impressive, and the same goes for Dankworth’s low key jazz tinklings. There is no sign of a released soundtrack recording. There is no sign in the film of any musical reference beyond about 1961 too.
BLU-RAY
DIRK BOGARDE
Darling (1965)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
Accident (1967)
THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Performance (1970)