[4][5] At the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award.

[7][8][9] Stephen, a married Oxford tutor in his forties, has two students: the rich and likeable William, of whom he is fond, and a beautiful, enigmatic Austrian named Anna, whom he secretly covets.

Returning home, he finds that his pushy colleague Charley has been using the house for sex with Anna.

As he is too drunk to drive, Anna takes the wheel, but she crashes the car outside Stephen's gate.

Upon finding the accident and William dead, Stephen pulls the deeply shaken Anna from the wreckage and hides her upstairs while he calls the police.

He comes by in the morning to find a bemused Charley, who cannot prevent Anna from packing to return to Austria.

[10][11] Losey makes a cameo appearance in the film, and Pinter has a brief speaking role as the television producer, Mr.

[13] In his review upon the film's release, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called Accident "a sad little story of a wistful don ... neither strong drama nor stinging satire.

"[14] Responding to criticism that the film's meaning was difficult to discern, Stanley Baker said: "It's obvious what Accident meant ...

Of Joseph Losey's direction, Baker said: "One of Joe's problems is that he tends to wrap things up too much for himself.

Anna and William are the invited guests, but Charley intrudes on the company unexpectedly.

[20][21][22] Film critic Robert Maris writes: As in Pinter's plays, the dialogue is often mundane, but conversations are usually loaded with menacing implications or punctuated by lengthy silences.

[23]Film critics James Palmer and Michael Riley cite the dialogue from the "deceptively casual, languid scene on the lawn" which follows the tennis match, serving as "a paradigm of reflexive storytelling.

ANNA carefully places daisy chain around CLARISSA’s neck (Rosalind's daughter).