To me, this movie is perfection.

Just what I expected

Crappy film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I recently read the John Brain novel and so was keen to see this celebrated adaptation of it. It was the debut feature of director Jack Clayton, two of whose relatively small number of succeeding films I've seen and enjoyed ("The Innocents" and "The Great Gatsby"). I'm a fan of the British realist cinema movement of the late 50's and early 60's and see this movie as a trailblazer for other important films which followed.Set in the immediately post-war period as witness the bomb-site locations which appear throughout as backdrops, the film unquestionably speaks to societal attitudes of masculinity, marriage, class snobbery, provincialism and morality still prevalent at its time of release in 1959.I was pleased to see in the credits that the director of photography was the great British cameraman Freddie Francis and he doesn't disappoint with typically imaginative and memorable set-ups and portraits. In one tracking shot I'm sure I detected a hand-held camera tracking shot long before it became the vogue. The story of a young working class accountant on the make is gripping and grittily portrayed, although perhaps this distinctly non-working class occupation with a taste for amateur dramatics belies the underlying class-war which underpins Lawrence Harvey's Joe Lampton character's cynical path up the greasy pole - namely to bed and wed the virginal young daughter of the monied industrialist with influence everywhere in the Northern town where his factories are based.What he doesn't count on is falling sideways into a steamy affair with older woman Alice Aisgill herself the put upon wife of her obviously philandering husband, when they meet at the local theatre rehearsing a play. At first she's just a bit-on-the-side while he works out his plan to entice sweet young Susan but Alice's worldliness and maturity speak to Joe far more than Susan's perkiness and naïveté. Of course Joe's balancing act has to fail and it does so after he cynically deflowers Susan, getting her pregnant in the process and bringing himself into the line of fire of the seemingly omnipotent father and so inadvertently gets what he originally wanted, an easy path to the upper classes and all the wealth, comfort and privilege that go with it, only when he gets up close to it, the grass is far from the verdant green he believed it would be.Clayton's direction is assured and stylish. There are many memorable scenes, perhaps none more than in the climactic scene where a newly-engaged Joe learns at his office of Alice's fate with a clever piece of overlapping dialogue. The movie is decidedly adult in its attitude to sex, not only the extra-marital affair between Joe and Alice, but also in the cold calculating way Joe takes away the too-trusting and adoring Susan's virginity. Even the language is more direct and abrasive than you'd expect, especially the tirade that Alice's flat mate Elspeth lets rip at Joe after he dazedly returns to the flat where he and Alice shared their trysts.As regards the acting, I'd have to agree with those critics who contend that Harvey just doesn't seem quite working class enough for the part. Possibly the movie came just too early for actors who would have carried off the role better like Albert Finney or Richard Harris, although their time would soon come. Simone Signoret was good value for her Oscar as the doomed Alice, but the casting all the way down the credits is uniformly good.An epochal British film, blazing a trail for the kitchen sink dramas of the next decade, but one which still stands up today on its own merits.

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+

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.

I simply can't think of enough praise for this unforgettable film. It was the first time I had ever seen Simone Signoret when I rented it at a video store about five years ago. It was her Academy Award winning performance and she certainly earned it.To me, the movie didn't really become fascinating until she appeared, but then it was mesmerizing. The movie was so beautiful on so many levels. All of the performances were sublime - the script was terse, but somehow still rich. It was really heartbreaking -- most unforgettable was Simone Signoret. She is brilliant. Simply brilliant. I've rented it and watched it three times since then and I've tried to buy it, but to no avail. Thankfully, TCM will be showing it Feb 10, 2008, so many people will have an opportunity to enjoy it. I love this film. It is simply one of the best movies I've ever seen.