Room at the Top (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
'Room at the Top' (directed by Jack Clayton), is a highly influential 1959 Academy Award-winning British classic that is significant for it being the 1st of the British New Wave of realistic "kitchen sink" dramas; stories of a sordid sort that usually involve working-class individuals. 25 yr. old arrogant, overly ambitious government accountant/clerk Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), relocates from a small-town slum to a dour Yorkshire industrial city in England's north country and, immediately wants to bed upper-crust, Susan (Heather Sears). Her boorish industrialist father (Donald Wolfit), a self-made millionaire, happens to be very influential in town. So Joe's co-workers keep telling him she is out of his league & should really stick to his own kind.
But Joe joins the same amateur drama club that she belongs to & steals the naive girl away from her upper-crust beau, Jack (John Westbrook). To this, her father reacts by sending her off to continental Europe. This leads our fairly unlikeable anti-hero to commence an affair with Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), an older, unhappily married French woman who is a member of the same drama club. Joe & Abigail both click. They are each other's safe haven in a tumultuous world. But they argue, greatly. And when Susan returns to England, Joe gets her pregnant, plans marriage, & disposes of Alice, even though he has come to love her & realizes in his black heart of hearts that she is the woman that is best suited for him. He sticks with insipid Susan so as to social-climb & sell his soul, in the process. Vacuous Joe never stops having a chip on his shoulder because of his working-class background + his years spent as a POW. Tragedy ensues.
So this is what I would call a HEAVY drama. There is nothing remotely uplifting about it. It is the type of film that you want to see for its assured direction, stellar writing & some excellent performances ... well, most of 'em. Simone Signoret is stunningly good as Abigail, the spurned lover; locked in a loveless marriage; and whose star-crossed dalliance with Joe doesn't end in her favor. There is a naturalism & mercurial quality to her performance that makes it easy to see why she won the Oscar for Best Actress over some very big Hollywood hitters; namely, Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor & Katharine Hepburn. She bested them all.
On the other hand, there is Laurence Harvey. Now, I quite liked him in 1962's The Manchurian Candidate, but here, he is just so loathsome as the weak, amoral Joe, that I think a better actor could have given this despicable character more light & shade to the portrayal. As is, the performance is one-note. But again, maybe his effectiveness in that 'one-note' was the point. The other performance of significance comes from Hermione Baddeley {one of the maids in Mary Poppins}, who plays Alice's one friend; a performance slightly over 2(!) minutes in length that gave her an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress. Room at the Top's frank discussion of sex, the British class system & the bleak realities of life made it a stand-out for 1959 cinema.
But Joe joins the same amateur drama club that she belongs to & steals the naive girl away from her upper-crust beau, Jack (John Westbrook). To this, her father reacts by sending her off to continental Europe. This leads our fairly unlikeable anti-hero to commence an affair with Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), an older, unhappily married French woman who is a member of the same drama club. Joe & Abigail both click. They are each other's safe haven in a tumultuous world. But they argue, greatly. And when Susan returns to England, Joe gets her pregnant, plans marriage, & disposes of Alice, even though he has come to love her & realizes in his black heart of hearts that she is the woman that is best suited for him. He sticks with insipid Susan so as to social-climb & sell his soul, in the process. Vacuous Joe never stops having a chip on his shoulder because of his working-class background + his years spent as a POW. Tragedy ensues.
So this is what I would call a HEAVY drama. There is nothing remotely uplifting about it. It is the type of film that you want to see for its assured direction, stellar writing & some excellent performances ... well, most of 'em. Simone Signoret is stunningly good as Abigail, the spurned lover; locked in a loveless marriage; and whose star-crossed dalliance with Joe doesn't end in her favor. There is a naturalism & mercurial quality to her performance that makes it easy to see why she won the Oscar for Best Actress over some very big Hollywood hitters; namely, Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor & Katharine Hepburn. She bested them all.
On the other hand, there is Laurence Harvey. Now, I quite liked him in 1962's The Manchurian Candidate, but here, he is just so loathsome as the weak, amoral Joe, that I think a better actor could have given this despicable character more light & shade to the portrayal. As is, the performance is one-note. But again, maybe his effectiveness in that 'one-note' was the point. The other performance of significance comes from Hermione Baddeley {one of the maids in Mary Poppins}, who plays Alice's one friend; a performance slightly over 2(!) minutes in length that gave her an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress. Room at the Top's frank discussion of sex, the British class system & the bleak realities of life made it a stand-out for 1959 cinema.