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Tripwire Reviews StudioCanal’s Room At The Top
Naked Ambition
Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews StudioCanal’s Room At The Top out now on Blu-Ray as part of their Vintage Classics…
Room At The Top
Director: Jack Clayton
Stars: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears
Based on John Braine’s book of the same name, Room At The Top, now released as part of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics, is the story of the ambitious Joe Lampton (Harvey), determined to make his way up the greasy pole to the room at the top of the title in a fictional Yorkshire town.
Lampton has his eyes on the posh boss’s daughter Susan Brown (Sears) as a way of moving up the ladder but he is thrown off course through a torrid and ultimately doomed love affair with the alluringly Gallic Alice Aisgill (Signoret).
Room At The Top is a slightly noirish British 1950s film, underpinned by the chemistry between Harvey and Signoret. Harvey’s brooding alpha male, returned to the fictional northern town of Warley to make his fortune, makes for a mesmerising performance. Signoret is suitably vampish while Sears offers a credible counterpoint to her French rival. The end ramps up the dread with a true sense that Lampton, now he has what he wants, will ultimately be devoured by his own ambition.
JOE LAMPTON (LAURENCE HARVEY) AND SUSAN BROWN (HEATHER SEARS) TAKE A WALK BY THE LAKE *** Local Caption *** Feature Film
JOE LAMPTON (LAURENCE HARVEY) TALKS TO SUSAN BROWN (HEATHER SEARS) IN THE LIBRARY *** Local Caption *** Feature Film
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (790382cn)
‘Room at the Top’ – Simone Signoret and Lawrence Harvey
GTV Archive
Room At The Top the first film to have an X certificate at UK cinemas, is a wonderfully satirical film that looks at hubris and ego through a very British prism. It’s also a kitchen sink drama with a decent role for a female character in the shape of Aisgill, for which Signoret bagged a best supporting actress gong in 1960. Clayton went on to direct horror films The Innocents with Deborah Kerr and much later Something Wicked This Way Comes, based on the Ray Bradbury story of the same name as well as The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford in 1974. He wasn’t a prolific director but he was very selective with what he made.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (790382co)
‘Room at the Top’ – Simone Signoret and Lawrence Harvey
GTV Archive
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (782981gn)
‘Room at the Top’ Film – 1959 –
Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) and Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret) talk to each other having been in a rain shower.
GTV ARCHIVE
Romulus Films/Granada International
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (782981gm)
‘Room at the Top’ Film – 1959 –
Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) and Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret).
GTV ARCHIVE
Romulus Films/Granada International
The version here really brings the picture to life and the scenes shot on location in Yorkshire leap off the screen. The extras are thin on the ground here: a few commentaries, an excerpt of an audio interview and some behind the scenes stills. However the film itself is an important, groundbreaking piece of work that continues to cast a huge shadow on cinema.
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (1619707a)
Room At The Top, Simone Signoret, Laurence Harvey
Film and Television
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (1613284a)
Room At The Top, Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret
Film and Television
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (1604497a)
Room At The Top, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears
Film and Television
EDITORIAL USE ONLY / NO MERCHANDISING
Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (1622854a)
Room At The Top, Simone Signoret, Laurence Harvey
Film and Television
JOEL MEADOWS
Room At The Top is on Blu-Ray now from StudioCanal
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