Telling the sad story of
two souls who misunderstand the connection that they find with each other,
British drama The Hireling energizes
familiar class-system dynamics with a tight focus on characterization.
Moreover, the near-perfect casting of the leading roles allows Sarah Miles to
epitomize the plight of a fragile individual forced by birth to perpetuate the noblesse oblige of the upper class,
while Robert Shaw, at his most animalistic, portrays a lower-class striver who
temporarily forgets his station, causing ugly consequences. There’s a love
story of sorts hidden inside The Hireling,
though the filmmakers wisely present the quasi-romance as a tragedy
illustrating what happens when people accept social boundaries as
insurmountable and permanent. Intimate, loaded with well-chosen visual metaphors,
and relentless, The Hireling achieves
that rare thing in the dramatic arts—pure storytelling clarity—even though the
lack of fully developed supporting characters renders the movie imperfect.
Set
in the early 20th century and directed with admirable economy by Alan Bridges
from a sensitive script by Wolf Mankowitz, the picture begins with the release
of noblewoman Lady Franklin (Miles) from a sanitarium. We soon learn she had a
nervous breakdown following the death of her husband. Hired to drive Lady
Franklin home is Steven Ledbetter (Shaw), a rough-hewn commoner who puts on
airs of crisp manners in order to grow his small chauffeuring business. In
reality, Steven bitterly resents England’s class system, perhaps because he
wasn’t able to rise above the rank of Sergeant Major while serving in the military
during World War I. Steven addresses those with higher stations as “milady” and
“sir,” but his anger at the limitations placed upon him by society is evident
to anyone who looks closely enough—which, of course, members of the nobility never
bother to do.
Over the course of Lady Franklin’s reentry into normal life, she
often hires Steven for driving and for companionship. He listens politely while
she talks about her grief, and he accompanies her on outings and picnics. The
reason Lady Franklin believes the time she spends with Steven to be appropriate
is that he fabricates a story about being happily married with children.
Secretly, however, Steven becomes infatuated with Lady Franklin and deludes
himself into thinking she returns his affection. Reality shatters Steven’s
world when an ambitious gentleman named Hugh Cantrip (Peter Egan) sets his
sights on Lady Franklin’s fortune. A smug prick who served as an officer during
the war (adroitly representing his “superiority” over Steven), Hugh seduces
Lady Franklin even as he keeps a lover on the side. In his capacity as a
driver-for-hire, Steven sees everything, leading to a wrenching confrontation.
Although it’s easy to envision an Americanized remake of The Hireling with blood pumping closer to the surface—Miles’
performance is icy and Shaw’s portrayal eventually becomes quite brutish—the
cruel machinations of the British class system are essential to the movie’s
efficacy, because The Hireling is all
about topics characters refuse to address because doing so wouldn’t be “proper.”
As captured by Michael Reed’s beautifully moody photography, the characters in The Hireling are trapped because of the
gaps between their personal identities and their social identities. As they say
in the UK, mind the gap.
The Hireling: RIGHT ON
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