Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

The Caretaker

Play trailer Poster for The Caretaker 1964 1h 45m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
86% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 67% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Naive and lonely Aston (Robert Shaw) rescues the homeless and manipulative Davies (Donald Pleasence), inviting him to stay at his rundown family home. Aston's brother and guardian, Mick (Alan Bates), dislikes the shiftless Davies, but comes to see him as someone to unload the house onto when Aston proposes that Davies become its caretaker. Mick, fed up with his responsibilities, hopes Davies' duties as caretaker will extend to caring for his brother as well.

Critics Reviews

View More
John Russell Taylor Sight & Sound 04/08/2020
Alan Bates and Donald Pleasence are familiar in their roles, but at the same time so fresh that one would never guess how often they had played them on the stage, and Robert Shaw is, for British audiences at least, a revelation. Go to Full Review Variety Staff Variety 02/23/2012
Basically, it's a one-set play, and that made it a tough assignment for director Clive Donner. His fluent treatment, however, makes the most of the macabre verbal exchanges, and overcomes many of the static handicaps of the subject. Go to Full Review Joan Didion Vogue 03/11/2020
What goes on in a dark room on an immense luminous screen is quite a different proposition from what goes on in a semi-darkened theatre. Go to Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia 04/10/2019
A triumph which deserves to be discovered by a new generation. Go to Full Review Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) 03/20/2018
Every line in it involved the most delicate decisions of film-making, and all three actors are even better than they were on stage. Go to Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 05/11/2013
A-
More a theater experience than a cinema one. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Alain E @AlainE Dec 19 Frankly, this today is boring despite the excellent credentials. The audio has not been restored, so it’s hard to understand what they say and the subtitles are all over the place, one word after another, not separating the speakers. There are also a few scratches on the image itself. See more Blobbo X 08/23/2024 Play by Harold Pinter put to celluloid. Blobbo not know if emperor has clothing this time or not but lacks suffient patience to find out. Long long and talky talky. See more Martin B 07/23/2024 I can't imagine three more annoying characters. This is not entertainment it's works watching it. See more 10/06/2017 A fine record of the original cast (Robert Shaw had taken over from Peter Woodthorpe on Broadway) in Pinter's blackly comic three-way power play, given extra resonance from being filmed in an actual attic in Hackney during the bitter winter of 1962. The temptation to overplay the baroque menace is resisted - Shaw in particular plays it very straight - and the result is funny, edgy and nuanced - with tight cinematography from Nic Roeg and a subtle underscore by Ron Grainer. Clive Donner's best work. See more 06/11/2015 Not as powerfully tense as the play, but still has a handful of real striking moments/monologues. All of the performances really carry the film, an adaptation that easily could have fallen into stagnation otherwise considering it all takes place in just one room. Roeg does a great job of making you feel like you need to duck your head just watching this film, it feels so cramped. Donald Pleasence and Alan Bates are the real standouts, Robert Shaw really delivers where it counts but I found him to be overall a bit spottier. All in all, one of the more effective stage to film adaptations. See more 09/24/2009 Spot on performances (Bates standard) definitely do the dialogue justice and mixed with the sparse setting deliver an amusing and menacing piece with a dark undertone of menace most horrors struggle to achieve. See more Read all reviews
The Caretaker

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Clive Donner

Director

Alan Bates

Mick

Donald Pleasence

Mac Davies

Robert Shaw

Aston

More Like This

View All
Crossing the Line 43% 44% Crossing the Line Watchlist The Ballad of Jack and Rose 46% 61% The Ballad of Jack and Rose Watchlist Quartet 44% 32% Quartet Watchlist Flashbacks of a Fool 41% 51% Flashbacks of a Fool Watchlist Match Point 77% 81% Match Point Watchlist TRAILER for Match Point Discover more movies and TV shows. View More
View All

The Caretaker

The Caretaker (1964) The Caretaker (1964) The Caretaker (1964) The Caretaker (1964) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Naive and lonely Aston (Robert Shaw) rescues the homeless and manipulative Davies (Donald Pleasence), inviting him to stay at his rundown family home. Aston's brother and guardian, Mick (Alan Bates), dislikes the shiftless Davies, but comes to see him as someone to unload the house onto when Aston proposes that Davies become its caretaker. Mick, fed up with his responsibilities, hopes Davies' duties as caretaker will extend to caring for his brother as well.
Director
Clive Donner
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 45m