Room at the Top was part of the 'kitchen sink' dramatic genre of British films, featuring angry young working-class men trying to find their way. Look Back in Anger (1958) began the movement, which continued with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Sons and Lovers, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962).

Room at the Top was different in that the male protagonist manipulates the class system to his advantage, instead of merely rebelling against it. Lawrence Harvey, best known for playing the lead in The Manchurian Candidate, is every bit as intense and prickly here. As Joe Lampton, he cynically romances Susan (Heather Sears), the pretty young daughter of a wealthy and powerful businessman, with the intention of using her love as a lever to pry his way into the upper class.

Joe is fueled in his ambitions by a great resentment toward his romantic rival, Jack Wales (John Westbrook). Sneering and condescending, Jack has the inside track with Susan through her obliging parents. He badgers the class-conscious Joe on every occasion, taking pleasure in how easily Joe can be infuriated. But while Susan's mother (Ambrosine Phillpotts) also mocks and underestimates Joe, her shrewd father (Donald Wolfit) sees qualities in Joe that remind him of himself.

Joe's professed ideal woman combines both innocence and family wealth. While this explains his attempted conquest of Susan, he also takes a mistress who doesn't fit the bill. Alice (Simone Signoret) is older, heavyset, and a former prostitute. In a loveless marriage with an abusive man, it is easy to understand why Alice falls for Joe. Joe's motivations are mixed: he knows that Alice could ruin his life, but her mature love and understanding makes her his soul mate.

Simone Signoret's performance was the most praised of the film. Along with Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn, she was one of the leading European actresses of the day. Signoret won the British Academy Award for Best Foreign Actress three times during the 1950s, in 1953 for Casque d'Or, in 1958 for Les Sorcieres de Salem, and of course for Room at the Top. She had an ironical but vulnerable way about her, and continued to land prestigious supporting roles throughout the 1960s, despite middle age and continued weight gain.

Because her role was deceptively simple, the performance of Heather Sears has been ignored. She had won the British Academy Award for Best British Actress the year before, for playing a Helen Keller role in The Story of Esther Costello. In Room at the Top, she is Susan, the enthusiastic, sheltered (and somewhat addled) object of Joe's machinations. Sears would resurface the following year as a similarly naive love interest in Sons and Lovers, another now-forgotten 'kitchen sink' British drama that received seven Oscar nominations.

The power of film censors had greatly diminished throughout the 1950s, as television had forced films to become more daring. Sexually explicit dialogue was used in Room at the Top which would have been unthinkable just a few years before. Sears cheerfully discusses how enjoyable her 'first time' had been for her, and the plot includes discussion of prostitutes and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

Room at the Top was the British equivalent of the American film Anatomy of a Murder, which had also shredded the once diligent production code with its sexually explicit script. Both films were enormous box office hits in 1959 on their respective sides of the Atlantic Ocean, demonstrating that film audiences approved of finally being treated as adults.

Time has eliminated the shock value of Room at the Top, whose tagline was "A Savage Story of lust and ambition". This has led those who judge films primarily by their similarity to currently playing theatrical releases to state that it is 'dated'. But Room at the Top was not merely a great film for its time, but at any time. Its themes of ambition, class conflict, and choosing between love and fortune are still valid today. The film could easily be remade today, with the aspect of class emphasized by making the male lead a self-educated immigrant.

In a year when the big-budget blockbuster Ben-Hur swept nearly all the major Oscars, Room at the Top managed to win two. Simone Signoret won Best Actress despite the fact that her role was a supporting one, and in a British film at that. Neil Paterson also took home a statuette, for his screen adaptation of John Braine's novel.

Room at the Top received four other Oscar nominations, for Best Picture, Best Director (Jack Clayton, whose other great film was The Innocents from 1961), Best Actor (Harvey), and Best Supporting Actress (Hermione Baddeley, who played Signoret's elderly friend).

Harvey played the lead in a 1965 sequel, Life at the Top, which had Jean Simmons cast as his wife Susan. He skipped the final film of the series, Man at the Top (1973). (97/100)

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Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older