Sarah Miles as Lady Helen Franklin

Robert Shaw as Steven Ledbetter

THE HIRELING 1973lecinemadreams.blogspot.com /2015/10/the-hireling-1973.html

As a huge fan of Gosford Park and Downton Abbey , I harbor a special weakness for romantically rendered, period-precise ruminations on the post-war decline of Britain’s aristocracy and the erosion of its class system. There’s thatand much more in Alan Bridges’ (The Return of the Soldier) superb adaptation of L.P. Hartley’s (The Go-Between)1957 novel The Hireling—wherein the tentative reformation of a shell-shocked England serves as backdrop andcounterpoint to the unorthodox relationship forged between a hired limousine driver and his society-class employer.The first time we see Lady Helen Franklin,she appears to be lost in an absent-mindeddaze, staring blankly out at a pond frombehind a chain-link fence surrounding whatlooks to be a home in the British countryside(people peering from behind barriers will bea recurring motif in the film). It is indeed ahome, of sorts, as it turns out Lady Franklinis a patient at a “rest cure” sanatorium for therich and titled. It's a sprawling, mental-healthfacility whose tasteful opulence adheres toBritish “keeping up appearances” standardsof discretion by not betraying its truefunction; the grounds more resembling acountry estate than a hospital.

Lady Franklin is recuperating from a nervousbreakdown and suicide attempt brought onby the deaths—suffered over a brief butunspecified period of time—of both herfather and her husband. Deaths over whichshe feels so much guilt and remorse, life hasvirtually ceased to exist for her. Little is known of Lady Franklin at this point,but from our short acquaintance it's clear thiswoman is among the walking wounded. Afragile, ragdoll of a figure who appearsdistant, distracted, and barely able to keep it

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Peter Egan as Captain Hugh Cantrip

Elizabeth Sellars as Lady Franklin's Mother

Dr. Mercer (Lyndon Brook) expedites Lady Franklin's sanatorium release a little too eagerly

together. In spite of all this, her doctor (Lyndon Brook) insists the time has come for her to return to “normal life,” andso with brusque solicitude, he discharges herinto the temporary care of chauffeur servicedriver Steven Ledbetter (Shaw), the titularhireling enlisted by Lady Franklin’s mother(Sellars) to transport her daughter home toLondon.

It's in this scene that The Hireling’s narrativetheme exploring the contrast of pragmatismvs. emotionalism as survival skills is firstintroduced. We first see it dramatized in theair of exasperated impatience the doctor andhospital staff displays toward their wealthyclientele. A gently condescending attitudeindicative of the pervasive working-classbelief that nervous breakdowns and thecoddling of psychological maladies areluxuries only the well-to-do can afford.

The drive to town—over the course of which,images of poverty and post-war squalor areglimpsed from behind the polished panes ofLedbetter’s pristine Rolls Royce—furtheremphasize the film’s themes of classdivision.Foreshadowing later events, Ledbetter andLady Franklin’s labored initial exchangesacross the glass partition separating driverfrom passenger, display a sympatheticcommonality, yet are fraught withcaution and misunderstanding.Ledbetter, a former sergeant major inthe army, finds security and a sense ofpurpose in conforming to the arbitraryformalities of his station. Well-mannered and polite, he speaks onlywhen spoken to, peppers hisresponses with “milady,” and is notabove fabricating a backstory (he liesabout the scope of his driver-for-hirebusiness and makes up a wife andchildren) if it results in engendering client faith in his stability.

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Lady Franklin suffers another small breakdown, but her mother is more concerned that the the window washer will witness this unseemly lapse of decorum

Ledbetter’s unquestioning acceptance of his lot, indeed, his appearance to have made the most of it, appeals agreat deal to the floundering Lady Franklin, who has come to view her society life as both directionless and empty.As they drive, Ledbetter’s matter-of-fact directness has the effect of bringing Lady Franklin out of her shell. Enoughso that she has the bravery to request he drive past the cemetery containing the bodies of the two most importantmen in her life, and just enough to prepare her for her impending reunion with her flinty mother (Sellars).Almost as a form of therapy, Lady Franklinhires Ledbetter to take her on drives twiceweekly. His pragmatism inspiring in her anewfound independence, simultaneously,her taking him into her confidence serving tothaw his formal facade and disarm his firmly-rooted hostility toward the upper classes. Ofcourse, their ostensibly professionalarrangement is clearly one forged of amutual rapport and affinity extending farbeyond the boundaries of employer andhireling, yet it remains one neither party feelsdisposed to examine in depth until it’s toolate.

Too late rears its head in the form of Lady Franklin’s emerging self-reliance colliding with Ledbetter's rapidlyaccelerating infatuation with her. Too late also manifests in the triangular intrusion into their twosome of the loucheCaptain Hugh Cantrip (Egan); a former political ally of Lady Franklin’s late husband and, naturally, a gentleman ofmore appropriate social stature for Lady Franklin's company. Like all the characters in The Hireling, Cantrip isstruggling with readjustment to life after the war. But the ease with which he insinuates himself into Lady Franklin’slife (coupled with a level of deception inarguably more injurious than Ledbetter’s) underscores Ledbetter’s deepestresentment: that the wealthy classes have always had an easier go of it, and that he is doomed to forever be on theoutside looking in.

In speaking of The Hireling at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973 (where it shared the Grand Prize with JerrySchatzberg’s Scarecrow), actress Sarah Miles described it as “A tragedy of miscomprehension.” And indeed, TheHireling is at its most compelling when exploring the ways in which the rigid constraints of Britain’s class systemperpetuate emotional and sexual repression. Set in 1923, The Hireling presents a world in which human beingsreach out to one another from within the socially imposed/self-imposed cages of class and station. Behavior andmotivation is clogged up in ritual, and emotions are caught up in antiquated modes of conduct which make it next toimpossible for anyone to authentically convey to another how they really feel. In situations where a person’s

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Lady Franklin's unorthodox request to sit in the front seat with Ledbetter dramatizes both the casual familiarity the wealthy feel towards those in their employ, and the lack of equal license afforded the working-classes

Lady Franklin asks Ledbetter to be her escort at an amateur boxing match

passions are as opaque and inaccessible internally as they are externally, human contact inevitably loses out.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM

What I find most enjoyable about The Hireling (as I do Gosford Park and Downton Abbey) is its evocation of a timewhen one type of world was on its way out, clumsily making way for a new way of living and interacting. Withoutbecoming heavy-handed, The Hireling uses the interwoven lives of its three main characters—all of whom representa faction of Britain’s walking wounded, readjusting to post-war existence—to comment upon the failings of the classsystem.While our attention is called to the characters’ connection (Lady Franklin and Ledbetter ease each other’sloneliness) andcontrasts (She’smore amenable tothe dropping ofclass-basedformalities than he);the film makes ussubtly aware of therigid inequities thatalways linger on thefringes: Lady Franklin’s wealthand station affordher an interclassautonomy deniedLedbetter.Time and time againit’s underscored thatthe working classes,when faced withtragedy andhardship, have nooption but to be practical and “Get on withthings, ” while the rich are tended to,sympathized with, and are afforded theluxury of breakdowns both emotional (LadyFranklin) and ethical (Capt. Cantrip). Forexample, Lady Franklin is ignorant to the factthat her maid, Mrs. Hansen (PatriciaLawrence), who appears to have been withher for some time, has a blind son; a fact oflife never dwelled upon or grieved over bythe devoted servant as she goes about herduties.Similarly, as the film progresses, the once-fragile Lady Franklin comes to rebuild her lifejust as the life of the stalwart Ledbetter begins to unravel, yet she's not able to be there for him in the same mannerhe was there for her. Perhaps there is no real way in which she could be—for when presented with an opportunity toreturn his kindness, she does so very graciously and generously—but (to Ledbetter's dismay) at the cost of having toreveal she doesn't even know his first name. These sequence of events only further serve to solidify the perspectivethat Britain's post-war resurgence was achieved largely on the backs of its working classes, yet once the rich were

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Patricia Lawrence as Mrs. Hansen

reinstated and their lives returned to normal, little in the way of reciprocal attention was given to the labor classesand working poor who made it possible.

PERFORMANCESI’m afraid I was a little too enamored of fellow Brits Julie Christie and Susannah York to have paid much attention toSarah Miles during her brief heyday in the'70s. My strongest memory of her (outside ofher endorsement of drinking her own urinetwice daily as a kind of golden, pee-scentedfountain of youth. I've seen recent pictures ofher and she looks great, so maybe she's notjust pissing up a rope, so to speak) is thehubbub during the filming of the otherwiseforgettable 1973 Burt Reynolds western TheMan Who Loved Cat Dancing. It involved themysterious circumstances surrounding theon-location death (murder?suicide?) of Miles’personal assistant/lover. A scandalous eventthat not only ended her marriage toscreenwriter Robert Bolt (Lawrence ofArabia), but successfully stalled herascendancy as a leading lady of the 1970s.Over the years I’ve come to enjoy SarahMiles’ performances in The Servant (1963)and Ryan’s Daughter (1970) a great deal, but in my limited exposure to her work, The Hireling stands out asperhaps her best.

I saw The Hireling for the first time only last year, but I know had I seen it in 1973, it would have been a lastingfavorite. Miles displays an amazing range and brings a great deal of nuance and depth to a role in which hercharacter’s true motivations and feelings are not always clear to herself.

Two years before his iconic role as Quint in Jaws (1975) made him the late-7'0s man of the hour, Robert Shaw’sappearance in The Sting eclipsed his much finer work in The Hireling, released the same year. As Ledbetter, thebrutish but sensitive chauffeur, Shaw carves out a complex figure of concealed motives and glowering resentments.In fact, much of The Hireling plays out like an emotional suspense film in trying to fathom the depth of Ledbetter’ssincerity or the objective of his deceptions. Shaw's is a surpassingly intense performance of brooding insecurity andtortured longing.

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Brooding BruteWatching Robert Shaw's powerful performance, I couldn't help thinking that outside of Idris Elba and Daniel Craig, contemporary films are

lacking in men and overpopulated with boys

THE STUFF OF FANTASYI really love the look of The Hireling, with its deceptively lush, romantic imagery and rich period detail. A sense oftime and place is conveyed superbly, especially the attention given to differentiating the working class locations andthose of the wealthy. And in this I mean that there is no heavy-handed condescension favoring the rich; intriguingly,the film captures both social strata in a manner emphasizing the ways in which the characters from both sides aretrapped by their surroundings.

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Indicative of the repressive nature of Britain's class system The Hireling frequently films the principals insurroundings emphasizing borders and separation. Mirrors, windows, and reflective surfaces abound, conveyingcharacters' dual natures and motivations, along with the inability to sometimes see what is right in front of them..

THE STUFF OF DREAMSI've always entertained the theory that Americans eat up movies about class struggles in the UK because it allowscertain factions of our population to enjoy narratives of class-based conflict without the guilt.In America, we still have a long way to go towards being able to present our own class issues (aka: racism) in waysthat aren't wholly designed to assuage white audiences while reassuring them that things are not "really that bad." In British films, because the downtrodden classes are white, they are afforded their humanity, allowed to expresstheir rage, and even allowed not to forgive. At its core, The Hireling is pretty vicious to the aristocracy, and with goodreason.

Here in the States, we aren't that evolved yet. It's still the duty of blacks in films to take the moral high-road andnever really express anger or resentment, lest they lose audience sympathy. The status quo can't be sufficientlycriticized because business-as-usual in behind-the-scenes Hollywood is reflective of the culture as a whole. Thelack of diversity assures that the same race/class fear narratives are repeated and reinforced. So, British films tendto be the spoonful of sugar that helps the class struggle/discrimination medicine go down on these shores.

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Those expecting The Hireling to be a Driving Miss Daisy-esque heartwarmer will be shocked to find it a dark, fairly scathing indictment of theupper class.

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"We all have our place in life."

Personally, I find it cathartic to see movies in which servants and oppressed classes are afforded the dimensionalityto view their lot in life in ways far from noble or heroic. I love the potential for conflict presented by the fear the"haves" harbor should one day the "have-nots" get fed up with their lot. It's an opportunity to shed light on the curioussymbiosis that exists between rich and working classes, how one can't exist without the other in a strange anddysfunctional way. As drama it's certainly more authentic, and, as is the case of The Hireling, presents a far morelayered and thoughtful examination of the emotional consequence of social structures that are designed to supportcommerce, labor, and the status quo; yet calls upon people to suppress all that's human and instinctual withinthemselves.

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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