Room at the Top (1959)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Jack Clayton

Writers:

John Braine (novel)
Neil Paterson (writer)

Release Date:

January 1959 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A Savage Story of lust and ambition

Plot:

An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.

Plot Keywords:

Accountant | Cocktail Party | Ruins | 1940s | Racetrack

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 8 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Simone Signoret	...	Alice Aisgill
Laurence Harvey	...	Joe Lampton
Heather Sears	...	Susan Brown
Donald Wolfit	...	Mr. Brown
Donald Houston	...	Charles Soames
Hermione Baddeley	...	Elspeth
Allan Cuthbertson	...	George Aisgill
Raymond Huntley	...	Mr. Hoylake
John Westbrook	...	Jack Wales
Ambrosine Phillpotts	...	Mrs. Brown
Richard Pasco	...	Teddy
Beatrice Varley	...	Aunt
Delena Kidd	...	Eva
Ian Hendry	...	Cyril
April Olrich	...	Mavis

Runtime:

USA:115 min | Argentina:115 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:X (original rating) | Argentina:Atp | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | UK:15 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Remus

Trivia:

Vivien Leigh was initially offered the role later played by Simone Signoret.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The story takes place in 1947, but all the women's fashions and hairstyles are strictly in the contemporary 1958 mode, when the film went before the cameras.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "M*A*S*H: Rumor at the Top (#10.3)" (1981)

Outstanding angry young man film.

Although "Room at the Top" is set in Britain just after WWII, Americans of today will recognize in Joe Lambton the prototype of a yuppie – an offensively pushy, horny and self-obsessed social climber with no concern for the feelings of others, but a winning charm that pushes him all the way to the top.

An orphaned working class veteran who has studied bookkeeping, Joe leaves his bombed out home for another dismal industrial town where he goes to work at a dead end civil service job, while trying to promote himself into the ranks of the wealthy by romancing the young daughter of the richest man in town. In the mean time, he commences a tawdry affair with a wealthy woman who may be a prostitute.

At almost every turn, Lambton runs afoul of the husband or lover who got there first, but he won't be deterred from his goal of climbing higher up the social ladder, no matter who it hurts and even if it means having to commit adultery or marry for money.

For all of that, he is by turns a sympathetic character, as ably portrayed by Laurence Harvey, in spite of the fact that his lust for the older rich woman, matter of factly played by Simone Signoret, has consequences that should make him seem thoroughly detestable. Seeing the world from his point of view, we can't help but feel that his upper class foils deserve the trouble he visits upon them, even if we feel that he is wrong to corrupt himself and betray his working class origins.

The first rate production is trimmed down to essentials, yet has a balletic quality of movement when it comes to even the smallest gestures that is an unusually effective combination of masterful montage, choreography and camera movement. It is a great example of how technique and subject matter can come together to achieve a flawlessly artful yet modest effect. One of the best of the British angry young man genre.