A reasonably faithful adaptation of the stage play by the dramatist himself, Harold Pinter. As I write this the play has been revived yet again in London with Timothy Spall leading the cast. This proves that the play has legs even in the one-room claustrophobic setting which Pinter opened out marginally for the screen. There are still only three actors as Pinter wisely resisted showing those only mentioned on stage - the cafe proprietor who fired Davis, plus possible patrons of the cafe; the monk who brushed Davis off, etc. All three actors, Alan Bates, Robert Shaw, and Donald Pleasance are at the top of their game and play off each other brilliantly, none more so than Robert Shaw, best known for semi-violent roles to come, such as The Sting and Jaws, here playing a passive quasi zombie in the wake of a lobotomy. More Art House than Multiplex but none the worse for that.

I could not belief how good this movie is having seen many years ago on the big screen, and now on a BFI DVD. The sets suit the play so well, and the cast is very believable in every thing they do. The transfer from stage to screen is first class, and the pauses, delivery of the said lines is just right for the play. My only sadness is that WE "the British Film Industry" are just not producing things of this type nowadays rather than just a sad pap of work which demands no merit. Long live Pinter, and long live the Caretaker, see and died!!! The black and white photography is perfect and does not inter fear with the telling of the story. It must have been a very cold, cold, set on which to work.

This three-hander piece has no plot to speak of and, given author Harold Pinter's (typically) obscure intentions, attention must be paid constantly (not an easy task, having to contend with both the heavy British accents on display and the rather low volume of the audio itself); after having gone through the various supplements on the exemplary BFI DVD, the meaning of it all is still very much open to interpretation! The performances, however, are extremely impressive and the fact that all three actors had already appeared in the various stage versions certainly helped: Donald Pleasance and Alan Bates have showy roles that are often broadly comic, but a brooding Robert Shaw is unusually subdued for the most part - though the character's speech about his traumatic spell in hospital, where he suffered at the hands of a sadistic doctor, is as riveting as the actor's celebrated (and similarly quietly-spoken) one about the transportation of the Atom Bomb in JAWS (1975). Though making only minute concessions to cinematic conventions, Donner's handling (abetted by the stark cinematography of Nicolas Roeg and some weird ambient sounds by Ron Grainer in place of a score) ensures that the whole doesn't come across as merely a piece of filmed theatre; it still feels at odds even with the contemporaneous "Kitchen Sink" films of the British New Wave, with which style THE CARETAKER has forever been identified! Pinter's dialogue - alternately scathing and compassionate - is remarkably adult for its time, and the project only came through with the intervention of some celebrated admirers of the play: Richard Burton, Leslie Caron, Noel Coward, Peter Hall, Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Taylor, among others! I've watched the following Pinter-scripted films: THE SERVANT (1963), THE PUMPKIN EATER (1964), THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966), ACCIDENT (1967), THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (1968), THE GO-BETWEEN (1970), THE LAST TYCOON (1976) and THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981); however, only THE BIRTHDAY PARTY was adapted from his own work (also featuring Shaw and largely revolving around three eccentric characters) and it's similarly intractable - if still required - viewing.

This hard to find movie is now availible on an import DVD (with that "opened up" car scene) and it's worth seeking out. It's almost as good as the excellent"Homecoming" film, and while Bates and Shaw shine, it is Donald Pleasancewho steals the show. How this great actor ended up in grade Z films at the end of his career must be a sort of tragic drama in itself. It's wild to remember this "kitchen sink" classic came out of England the year the Beatles took the world by storm. Those were the days.....