Perfect cast and a good story

A Brilliant Conflict

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A really bitter pill of a movie, "Room at the Top" presents the world as a place full of those who trod on people to get ahead and those who get trod upon.There's not much room for anyone else, the film suggests, and the film's dreary visual style matches its tone. Everything looks equally bleak, both the cheap rooms that serve as locations for trysts and the swanky clubs and homes of the rich.Laurence Harvey plays nasty jerk who leaves a trail of hurt women wherever he goes and whose comeuppance comes at the sake of one dead woman and another who he's only marrying because he gets her pregnant. Simone Signoret plays an older woman who falls hard for him and tries to convince him, unsuccessfully, to forget about getting ahead and instead do what will make him happy. It's a solid kitchen sink drama, but a deeply depressing one."Room at the Top" made a big impact on American audiences and garnered two Oscars in 1959: Best Actress (Signoret) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Neil Paterson), with that win becoming the only film to stop juggernaut "Ben-Hur" from making a clean sweep of that year's Oscars. It also snagged nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Jack Clayton), Best Actor (Harvey), and Best Supporting Actress, for Hermione Baddelley's teensy-weensy performance as best friend to Signoret. Indeed, I believe Baddelley's performance is the shortest to ever be nominated for an Oscar, and it's a testament to how much the movie community liked this film that she snuck in at all.Grade: B+

A powerful performance by Laurence Harvey highlights this drama about a young man determined to be successful. Joe Lampton leaves the lower class industrial town of his youth with his sights set on achieving success on his own terms. His thin veneer of braggadocio hides layers of insecurity about his class and blue-collar pedigree.He determination to wed a naïve girl (Heather Sears)from money is sidetracked by his relationship with an older woman (Simone Signoret). Will his cold calculations determine his future or will he learn that life is about more than status and money?The strength of Harvey's portrayal borders on scenery chewing, but it is eminently watchable. Fortunately, Sears and Signoret are strong enough to balance his flamboyance, with the aid of Donald Wolfit who plays the father of the would-be bride with an understated power.Filmed in black and white, "Room at the Top" deserves its six Oscar nominations (and two wins). How much viewers enjoy it depends heavily upon their appreciation for Harvey's character, Joe Lampton.

It is very easy for me to overlook films such as Room at the Top because I was always reading similar books at school and watching kitchen sink dramas all the time as a kid.Yet this was one of the films that heralded the kitchen sink dramas in British cinema, the naturalistic films set in working class towns. It has a bitter bite as men who fought in the war still faced up to the class divide.Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) arrives in a provincial Yorkshire city such as Bradford with a secure job in the council's accounts department. Joe who was a prisoner of war is determined to succeed and does not lack in confidence. In his sights is young, vulnerable Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the local businessman, Mr Brown (Donald Wolfit) who like Susan's snooty boyfriend is all too aware of this social climber.While Susan is sent abroad to be kept away from Joe's clutches, he turns for solace to Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret) who he met at a local theatrical club when he was pursuing Susan. Alice is an older married woman from France, still sensual but unhappily married to her husband who is also cheating on her.Joe thinking that Susan and her riches are outside his grasp falls in love with Alice attracted to her European sensibilities, but divorcing her husband is not easy and then Joe finds Alice is pregnant and her family want a quick wedding.This is a tempestuous drama helped by Signoret's layered performance oozing sexuality as well as vulnerability. Harvey also gives a good performance, wanting to get to the top but conflicted in pursuing a girl for her wealth and a woman whom understands him.

Laurence Harvey wants "Room at the Top" in this 1959 film also starring Simone Signoret and Heather Sears. Directed by Jack Clayton, the story concerns a young man, Joe Lampton (Harvey), sensitive about being from a low British class, who wants to marry the boss' daughter (Sears) for her money and position. She's part of a small amateur theater company, so he joins. There he meets an older woman, the unhappily married Alice Aisgill. The two drift into an affair and fall deeply in love. Two things stand in their way: Joe's ambition and Alice's brute of a husband.This is, to put it simply, a devastating story that will stay with you long after the film is over. The movie belongs to Signoret, so sexy, so beautiful, so sad - she's perfect. Her vulnerability, her frankness, her coolness, and her deep unhappiness will shatter you. She deserved her Oscar hands-down.Harvey is magnificent as Joe. He's handsome, sexy, greedy, bitter, evil, and utterly determined to punish the upper class because he was born poor. The last scene is a knockout. I haven't seen the sequel - I can only imagine! Heather Sears does an excellent job as the whiny object of his affections, and Hermoine Baddeley, as Alice's friend, gives a marvelous performance. She was not only a top bawdy comedienne but a brilliant actress.Signoret was one of the great film presences, and if you see Room at the Top for no other reason, see it for her. The entire film is a knockout.