‘The Hireling’ (Alan Bridges, UK, 1973) 108 mins, Rated A
Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, Peter Egan
Sarah Miles was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as miserable waif Lady Franklin in Alan Bridges’ film about the impossibility of love transcending the class divide. Set in the pretty English spa town of Bath, where moisture seems to hang perpetually in the air, the film sees worldly chauffeur Ledbetter (Shaw) cosying up to the grieving Franklin who has just been released from a sanitarium following a breakdown – the result of the sudden death of her husband. The broad-shouldered, lovable brute, who teaches kids how to box in his down time, starts to believe that he may be in with a chance with this sad-eyed…