Based on a novel by Sir Oswald Mosley's son, Nicholas, and winner of a Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, Accident is one of Joseph Losey's (The Servant) most penetrating and pessimistic studies of human frailty. Losey is superbly served by the elliptical eloquence of Harold Pinter's screenplay and the subtle performances of his two favourite British actors, Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker.

Contentedly married to Rosaling (Vivien Merchant) but fearing emotional stultification, Stephen (Bogarde) yearns for an affair with the enigmatic Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) which, he realises, could either revitalise or ruin his life. Simultaneously, he is locked in a battle of duelling egos with his student William (Michael York), whose youthful vitality he envies, and with his friend Charley (Baker), whose media prowess and sexual success he covets.

Incisively probing the conflict between intellect and emotion, Losey and Pinter peel also away the veneer of educated middle-class civility to expose a world of thwarted desire and behavioural brutality. A film that has endured the test of time, it also bought a new lustre to late sixties British cinema.

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