Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

lolarites-894-174248 I feel I must speak up for Larry. After all I've read on this site as who how weak his Joe Lampton is. Like thin watery gruel he is. How no one wanted him for this, etc. I have to protest. Of any one, I feel no one can play the sympathetic cad like Larry. He is the King of Cads. Over and over again, i.e. A Dandy in Aspic (which he directed and rewrote some of the script after Anthony Mann died), Room at the Top, Life at the Top, Darling, Walk on the Wild Side, Summer and Smoke, Butterfield 8, he played the most loathsome of characters, always leaving a sliver of hope that there might be a real human being buried in him somewhere, which is usually the longings of a selfish, insincere boy. He was a genius at this, he even makes his portrayals of Philip Carrey and Raymond Shaw which seem to be sympathetic characters cold and reptilian. He was a special actor and I could never imagine anyone else in these roles. To prove his authority, my sister in law was once in New York on a very rainy day and as she reached for the door handle of probably the last available cab, someone took a shot at her like a linebacker and pitched her right in the gutter. He he grabbed the door handle and stepped over her to get in the cab, she looked up and locked eyes with Mr. Lawrence Harvey himself. I rest my case.

jcappy The unusual depth and range in the love between Alice (Simone Signoret) and Joe (Laurence Harvey) are what takes "The Room at the Top," to another level. However, this almost classic film doesn't always rise above its flaws. The truth is that Signoret is consistently convincing in her role, and Harvey is not. His biggest problem is his two-faced persona. He is the young, naive, rustic in one scene, and the older, authoritative, sophisticate in the next. He shifts between these two types more often than he switches accents. And his voice seems to follow the same pattern, so mellow when a yokel, so deep and masculine when a convincing dominant.This convenient inconsistency seems most apparent in his scenes with Susan Brown, where one sometimes gets the impression he is reading lines from a children's play, and yet at other times, he's the worldly older lover who cannot be bothered with such a vapid and square youth. His age seems to veer from 21 to 33, and back again, in according to the scene's mode. Unlike Signoret, Harvey doesn't adjust to the script's unevenness. He can be a faltering innocent with Alice or he can as likely be her suave superior. His juvenile jealous tirade over Alice's artist model experience is one of several examples of his character deviations. His venom here makes Mr Brown, the villainous capitalist, seem both relatively mild and complex. However, it's true that when the love scenes with Alice move beyond the literary, Harvey does achieve remarkable acting heights. Whether Simone Signoret's ability to be more than a match for her scripted lines has been transferred to him, or because she, in her first-class artistry, has covered for him, is hard to tell but, in the end, he towers, and the movie soars, despite his and its letdowns.

Prismark10 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.

tomsview I've always thought of "Room at the Top" as an important movie.Although the story seems anchored to life in Britain at the end of WW2, and driven by the class struggle and sense of delusion after the war, the major themes are universal.Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) in his attempt to rise above an impoverished background by latching onto a girl from a wealthy family has many cinematic soul brothers – Montgomery Clift in "A place in the Sun" and "The Heiress" for starters.In Joe's case, he sacrifices the woman he really loves, for comfort, security and position. Needless to say, he comes to regret that decision and therein lays the soul of this movie.It's easy to see why Simone Signoret won the Academy Award as Alice Aisgil, the older woman he loves. She is at once worldly, but vulnerable; it is painful to watch her as she realises the fragility of her relationship with Joe.Then there is Laurence Harvey. His was a difficult role, and although he may be a little too strident earlier in the movie, by the end, he inhabits Joe Lampton like a second skin.Laurence Harvey gave a certain gravitas to many movies, although his critics would seem to deny him any stature as an actor at all – I often wonder if they mixed up his off-screen life with his on-screen roles? Apparently he was promiscuous, bi-sexual, perennially late on set, and used people to gain advantage – not unlike Joe Lampton – but all that was off camera, it's not the Laurence Harvey 99.9% of us ever saw.When British actor Robert Stephens described Harvey in his autobiography as "an appalling man and, even more unforgivably, an appalling actor." It's hard to take that as a particularly astute observation when we watch not only this film, but also "Darling", "Butterfield Eight", "The Manchurian Candidate" and even "The Alamo", where Laurence Harvey's cultivated Colonel Travis is the perfect counterpoint to the testosterone charged performances of just about everyone else in the cast. But maybe those smooth good looks and that superb voice just got up the nose of less photogenic peers – there seems much peevishness in their comments.There is considerable depth to his performance in "Room at the Top", especially at the end when the anguish over what he has done breaks through his icy demeanour; it's understated and all the more powerful for it. Made in 1959, but set in the late 40's, the film looks good, and has that sense of timelessness often achieved by films made at a later date than when they are set.The sequel, "Life at the Top," made in 1965, was a polished production that had something to say about the politics of the time, and also featured a more mature performance by Laurence Harvey. However, it didn't have the immediacy of the original, which ushered in that brilliant period in British cinema in the late 50's and early 60's. History aside, "Room at the Top" is a powerful experience full of fascinating and attractive stars.