The Go-Between (1970) was the last of the three collaborations between English playwright Harold Pinter and American expatriate director Joseph Losey. It is far more accessible if less brilliant than the initial collaboration of the pair, The Servant (1963). The middle work of Pinter and Losey was The Accident (1967).

Historical Background – Harold Pinter: Pinter recently celebrated his 75th birthday on October 10th, 2005. He had something extra to celebrate this year, having been selected as the 2005 recipient of the Nobel Laureate Prize. For The Go-Between, Pinter adapted a poignant novel by L.P. Hartley. The product was therefore a good deal less obtuse than Pinter's own plays, which were typically dense psychological studies, featuring unspoken and often unexplained tension between the characters, exacerbated by breakdowns in communication.

Pinter was born in London, the son of a Jewish tailor of Portuguese nativity. After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Pinter took up acting under the stage name David Baron. His first play was The Caretaker (1957), which was adapted into a film in 1963. Pinter wrote screenplays for many films, notably The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), and The Handmaid's Tale (1990). He drew Oscar nominations for two of the scripts: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and Betrayal (1983).

Historical Background – Joseph Losey: Joseph Losey was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on January 14th, 1909. After an education at Dartmouth and Harvard, Losey began the study of medicine, but soon abandoned it for a career on the stage. He found work as an actor in New York during the thirties and supplemented his income writing reviews for such newspapers as The New York Times and the Herald Tribune. Losey acquired his first directorial experience in stage productions in New York and out of town. He was hired by RKO as a film director in 1947.

In his early films, Losey revealed a preoccupation with the study of character under conditions of duress. Losey made five films in Hollywood before undertaking Stranger on the Prowl (1951), in Italy. While abroad, Losey learned that he had been summoned to appear before the communist-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He refused to interrupt his filming schedule and when he returned to America, he learned that he had already been blacklisted. Losey worked the rest of his career in England and France.

Losey's British films dealt with issues of human frailty and corruption. The deep pessimism inherent in the three collaborations with Pinter, however, probably reflected the psychological makeup of the playwright as much or more than that of the director. The Servant (1963) won three BAFTA awards, Accident (1967) shared a Special Jury Prize from the Cannes Film Festival, and The Go-Between (1971) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. After Losey moved to France in 1976, he made a handful of additional films, including Mr. Klein (1977). Losey also took up directing opera, including a screen adaptation of Don Giovanni (1979) and a stage production of Boris Godunov (1980) for the Paris Opera. Losey died in 1984.

The Story: Young Leo Colston (Dominic Guard) will soon be thirteen. He is a well-bred middleclass lad being raised by his widowed mother, but in July of 1900, he is enjoying the treat of spending the summer with a classmate, Marcus Maudsley (Richard Gibson), whose wealthy family lives at Brandon Hall. Leo is given all of the solicitous attention that the well-to-do reserve for their poor relations. It's an uncommonly hot summer and poor Leo is roasting in his wool suit, which is the only outfit he owns. Marcus's young-adult sister, Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie), takes pity on him and asks her mother, Mrs. Maudsley (Margaret Leighton), to be allowed to go into town for a shopping trip to buy young Leo some clothing more appropriate for the current heat wave.

Marian, though she's warm and pleasant to Leo, has an ulterior motive. Marian is having a secret love affair with a handsome tenant farmer, Ted Burgess (Alan Bates). An alliance between Marian and Ted would be a distinct step down for the Maudsley family. Mrs. Maudsley is determined that Marian will marry Viscount Hugh Trimingham (Edward Fox), which would link the family to the aristocracy. Hugh is a fine fellow as well, but not as much of a lady's man as Burgess. Since Mrs. Maudsley has caught a wiff of Marian's shenanigans, Marian is reduced to all sorts of stratagems to arrange her trysts with Burgess. While in town shopping, she tells Leo to occupy himself in the cathedral for an hour. When Leo returns, he briefly spots Marian giving Burgess a parting kiss.

Leo is a popular addition to the Maudsley household. He may not have the family's cool sophistication, but he's a smart lad with a reputation, somewhat exaggerated by Marcus, for casting spells on bullying classmates. Leo is at the stage in life when one begins to be curious about "spooning" and what comes after spooning, but no one has yet given him a clue. Marian's calculated kindnesses toward him arouse mysterious feelings in the boy and he falls hopelessly in love, though she's several years his senior. Marian not only relishes the flattery of a teenage boy entranced by her charms, but also recognizes the potential convenience of enlisting Leo as a go-between. Leo becomes the "postman" for Marian and Ted, carrying their notes between Barton Hall and the Burgess farm as they arrange their get-togethers. When Marcus comes down with the measles and has to be quarantined, Leo's comings and goings go unnoticed.

At first, Leo relishes the opportunity to ingratiate himself with his beloved Marian. He implicitly believes her explanation of secret "business" dealings with Mr. Burgess. Gradually, however, Leo begins to suspect vaguely that men and women sometimes do mysterious things with one another of a more carnal variety. Furthermore, Leo gets to know Hugh Trimingham, who treats the boy very kindly. Hugh even helps make Leo a momentary village hero. Leo is brought in as a sub in a cricket match and makes a spectacular catch that retires Mr. Burgess. Leo begins to wonder if his errands for Marian are a kind of betrayal of Hugh. Leo is also puzzled to discover that both Hugh and Marian's father (Michael Gough) seem to have some vague inkling of Marian's transgressions but choose to turn a blind eye. As Hugh explains emphatically, "Nothing is ever a lady's fault."

Mrs. Maudsley, however, is not nearly so blasé about Marian's activities and how they might impact the family's fortunes. Mrs. Maudsley is something of a one-woman crusade dedicated to preservation of the class system. As luck would have it, things come to a head during the celebration of Leo's thirteenth birthday. Family deceits are dramatically exposed, while Leo is simultaneously informed and disillusioned about the nature of romance, in a manner that colors and distorts his view of human relationships from that day forward. In something of an epilogue or flash-forward, Leo (now played by Michael Redgrave) is imposed upon once again by Marian (now Lady Trimingham) to carry one last message for her.

Themes: I prefer to view the film's primary theme as the issue of class disparities, which were all-pervasive in Edwardian England, rather than to emphasize the Freudian subtext of traumatized adolescence because the latter is not all that convincing to me. It is Mrs. Maudsley who most stands as the guardian of the class system in this film. I'm less critical of Marian, I think, than most viewers might be in relation to her tempestuous love affair with Burgess. I place the blame on the rigid class system that was pressuring her into a loveless marriage with the pleasant-enough Hugh Trimingham instead of permitting her to choose the partner that both her heart and her loins demanded. Under such individuality-squashing circumstances, I say she was entitled to a premarital fling with Ted. I don't fault her for seeking Leo's aid as a conduit of messages so long as it was based on Leo's infatuation with her, but I do, of course, fault her for later manipulating and coercing the lad, using the authority of her superior class and maturity. The story is lovely enough coached in terms of an adolescent's confusion with the ambiguity and complexity of adult relationships and doesn't really require the less than credible Freudian carryover.

Production Values: The script for The Go-Between is interesting and entertaining, but by no means unblemished. When one considers the range of traumatic experiences to which young boys and girls can be subjected, it's difficult for me to get especially worked up about a lad of thirteen being exposed to an instance of two young adults copulating. As filmed, the scene was distinctly non-explicit. The only skin exhibited was the side of one of Marian's legs. It's far from clear that what Leo observed would even be enough to answer his questions about spooning. Granted, the woman involved was one for whom Leo himself carried a torch. Nevertheless, any lad who could be traumatized for life by such a limited bit of excitement is composed of very frail substance indeed.

The film's flash-forward component is also difficult to take seriously: a grandson of an unfaithful woman traumatized by his grandmother's infidelity. I can readily imagine a person bearing some distress about being illegitimate, but not because their father was illegitimate. The story taken on its own terms is intriguing enough, but the two implications of residual trauma some 50-60 years into the future are real stretches for such a minor and unspectacular infraction. On the other hand, the characterizations are richly drawn, involving viewers deeply in the day-to-day lives of these people. The entire story is told from the vantage point of Leo Colston.

Everything about the staging of this drama is magnificent and augments the values of the script. The settings are beautifully rendered in rich period detail, from the buildings, to the tea parties, the cricket match, and the contrasting of the leisure class and servants. There's a splendid mix of long shots of meadows and close-ups of faces. Every frame is well composed for effect and pace. The costumes are as rich and detailed as are the characters. It's the Edwardian period. The cinematographic color palette for this film is mainly subdued pastels, giving the film the aura of reminiscences. Losey does a stellar job differentiating yesteryear from the modern-day scenes by staging the former in the scorching hot, dog days of summer and the latter in a constant downpour. The thunderstorm during the final scene from 1900 serves as a connecting link to emphasize the residue of trauma between the two time periods. The soundtrack by Michel Legrande is a bit annoying – too much pounding piano music. Some reviewers also complain about the amateur vocal numbers delivered by Burgess and then Leo at the town feast, but I rather enjoyed Alan Bates rendition of an old favorite, "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes," from The Gondoliers, by Gilbert and Sullivan.

I suppose the cast accolades ought to begin with the young Dominic Guard. He was actually fifteen when the film was shot, playing a thirteen-year-old boy, but he's believable as thirteen. It's a very strong performance that I'll have to add to my select list of best performances by child actors. Guard didn't get a lot of further exposure in feature films, but he did perform well four years later in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Guard also had a role in Gandhi (1982). Michael Redgrave does a nice job carrying the adult part of the Leo Colston character in what is little more than a cameo.

In a couple other reviews that I've written recently, I've trashed Julie Christie a bit. I didn't care for her much in either Doctor Zhivago (1965) or Don't Look Now (1973). I think I said in one of those reviews that I didn't much care for her as either a woman or an actress. I'm prepared to amend that statement in relation to the present film: I still don't care for her very much as a woman but she turns in a stellar performance here as an actress. She's utterly convincing as the flirtatious, calculating, and somewhat ruthless Marian. In any case, I acknowledge that Christie is beloved by many viewers and respected by most critics. She's just not my cup of tea. Her other appearances have included Billy Liar (1963), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Petulia (1968), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Hamlet (1996), Afterglow (1997), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

I was very impressed with Alan Bates in this film, especially because I focused on contrasting his work here with what I clearly remember of his work from multiple viewings of The King of Hearts (1966). His other appearances include Zorba the Greek (1964), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), and The Sum of All Fears (2002). Edward Fox does a nice turn as Hugh Trimingham. He also appeared in The Duelists (1977), Soldier of Orange (1977), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Gandhi (1982), Never Say Never Again (1983), The Dresser (1983), Lost in Space (1998), and Nicholas Nickleby (2002). I'd be remiss if I said nothing about Margaret Leighton's magnificent performance as Mrs. Maudsley. She has relatively little to do for most of the film but absolutely carries the crucial dramatic climax. She appeared elsewhere in The Winslow Boy (1948), Waltz of the Toreadors (1962), and The Loved One (1965).

Bottom-Line: The Go-Between won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The British Film Institute ranks this film as the 57th best British film of all-time. It's a five-star production with five-star characters and performances, but I'm going to dock the film one star for stretching psychological credibility to the breaking point and for a jarring soundtrack. I highly recommend the film for fans of Pinter, Julie Christie, or British period pieces in general.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older