Room at the Top [Blu-ray]

Director: Jack Clayton, James Woolf, John Woolf

Overview

Ruthless young working-class Englishman Laurence Harvey takes a job in a North Country village controlled by millionaire Donald Wolfit. Harvey resents Wolfit's class consciousness and vows to rise to the top by wooing the millionaire's daughter, Heather Sears. Meanwhile he has an affair with Frenchwoman Simone Signoret. Though he regards Signoret as a mere self-gratifying conquest, she takes their romance seriously enough to kill herself when Harvey impregnates Field. Only as he leaves the chapel after marrying the millionaire's daughter does Harvey that his "smart" marriage, coupled with the guarantee of a fabulous business career, has been attained at the cost of his soul. Based on the novel by John Braine, Room at the Top was one of the most successful films of the British angry-young-man school; it later spawned two sequels, as well as a weekly TV series.

Customer Reviews

Product Details

Release Date:	01/14/2020
UPC:	0738329233808
Original Release:	1959
Rating:	NR
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:57:00
Sales rank:	34,376

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Film Historian Kat Ellinger; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Laurence Harvey	Joe Lampton,Joe Lampton
Simone Signoret	Alice Aisgill
Heather Sears	Susan Brown
Donald Wolfit	Mr. Brown
Ambrosine Phillpotts	Mrs. Brown
Donald Houston	Charles Soames
Raymond Huntley	Mr. Hoylake
John Westbrook	Jack Wales
Allan Cuthbertson	George Aisgill
Mary Peach	June Samson
Hermione Baddeley	Elspeth
Thelma Ruby	Miss Breith
Anne Leon	Janet,Actor
Wendy Craig	Joan
Stephen Jack	Darnley
Avril Elgar	Miss Gilchrist,Actor
Beatrice Varley	Aunt
Miriam Karlin	Gertrude
Richard Pasco	Teddy
April Olrich	Mavis
Everley Gregg	Mayoress
Delena Kidd	Eva
Ian Hendry	Cyril
Basil Dignam	Priest
Paul Whitsun-Jones	Man at Bar
Wilfrid Lawson	Uncle Nat,Uncle Nat
Yvonne Buckingham	Girl at Window
Doreen Dawn	High-stepping Girl
Harry Moore	Actor
Joan Leake	Actor
Honoria Burke	Actor,Actor
Allan Bracewell	Actor
Brian Worth	Actor
Ann Gunning	Actor
Mandy Priestly	Actor
Bob Palmer	Actor,Actor
Bill Morgan	Actor
Eric Louro	Actor
Pamela Manson	Actor
Ruth Kettlewell	Thespians member
Derek Benfield	Actor
Isla Cameron	Actor
Sandra Thompson	Actor
Kendrick Owen	Actor
Bonita Bridgeman	Actor
Kathleen Fox	Actor
Angela Culbert	Actor
Prunella Scales	Actor
Katherine Page	Actor
Kenneth Waller	Actor
Anthony Newlands	Actor
Andrew Irvine	Actor
Derren Nesbitt	Actor
May Hallatt	Actor
Sheila Raynor	Actor
Gilda Emmanuelli	Actor
Jane Eccles	Actor
Denis Linford	Actor
Michael Atkinson	Actor
Julian Somers	Actor
Richard Caldicott	Actor
Pat Lanski	Actor
Richard Caldicot	Actor
Jack Hedley	Actor
John Welsh	Mayor
Mario Nascimbene	Composer

Technical Credits

Neil Paterson

John Braine

Mordecai Richler

Neil Paterson	Screenwriter
James Woolf	Producer,Producer
John Braine	Screenwriter
Mordecai Richler	Screenwriter
Bob Cuff	Special Effects
Alastair McIntyre	Sound Effects
Peter Handford	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Room at the Top is somewhat tame by current standards, but in 1959 it caused the British Board of Film Censors to loosen their standards and allow the film's unusually frank dialogue. The British public was unaccustomed to films in which characters might admit that they enjoyed sex, and, as such, Room at the Top represented a breakthrough, even though it's a minor part of the film. Newfound frankness notwithstanding, the story is conventionally moralistic in its disapproval of its protagonist, who opts for the comfort of money over the ideals of love, honor, and compassion. The lead performances are first-rate. Simone Signoret won a Best Actress Oscar, though the film lost Best Picture to Ben-Hur. Also receiving an Oscar was screenwriter Neil Paterson, who adapted the John Braine source novel.