Starring: Simone Signoret, Laurence Harvey, and Heather Sears
Directed by: Jack Clayton
But it's certainly memorable.
The story has been told a million times: the boy that has everything going for him but a family name and the money that comes with it dreams of breaking out of his situation to a social status and wealth he's been told over and over is unattainable. What makes Room at the Top stand out from the rest is in the performances and the presentation.
Laurence Harvey is Joe Lampton, the schemer and dreamer at the center of Room at the Top. He quickly sets his eyes on Susan Brown, the pretty and sweet but rather boring daughter of the richest and most powerful man in town. Even before meeting her he sets out to conquer her, and it looks like he's going to achieve his goal when Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret) crosses Joe's path and complicates everything. It's Susan's money and status he desires, but it's Alice who has captured his heart. It quickly become apparent that one false move on Joe's part and everything will come crashing down around him, condemning him forever to the life he despises. But it wont be until too late that Lampton realizes that his "room at the top" may be lined with gold, but they're golden bars that'll trap him in forever- forcing him into a miserable existence he hadn't anticipated.
Harvey is his typical wooden self, but I like him here anyways. His passionate love scenes with Signoret shouldn't have been convincing in the least, but quite frankly they're dynamite- and it's primarily Signoret's doing. Her portrayal of Alice, a beautiful woman just past her prime and reaching a very vulnerable stage in her life, is simply sublime, and earned her the Best Actress Academy Award for 1959. Hers is the kind of jaw-dropping excellence you only stumble across occasionally in the movies- it was nothing less than a revelation on my part. It's an erotic and sad and raw and touching performance that's believable and heartbreaking. I can't come up with enough adjectives to describe Signoret's performance- you'll just have to see it for yourself.
The style of the film is clean and spare, which fits the subject matter perfectly. The direction is highly skilled and very effective, which is all the more impressive considering Room at the Top was Jack Clayton's directorial debut.
Room at the Top was a hit upon its release, depsite the fact it failed to gain Code approval in the United States. It holds the distinction of being one of the first films to bring attention to the fact that the American public was interested in having adult issues presented in a blatant but meaningful way. Room at the Top also contributed to the kick-off of a new chapter in British cinema which emphasized realism in regards to social, class and sexual issues. It was, as critic Doug Tomlinson writes, "one of the most significant and successful British films of the 1950's." Why it's so obscure today is baffling to me.
Room at the Top is a treasure, a gem of a film, an underappreciated masterpiece containing one of the most superb performances I've ever had the pleasure to experience. It is, in a word: fantastic.
(Black and White, in English)
-June 20, 2003
