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This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In 1956, John Osborne wrote his play "Look Back in Anger," which was a turning point in British drama in examining class revolt and changing social conditions in England in the post war years. But while Osborne's play is now virtually forgotten as a "kitchen sink" period piece, "Room at the Top," which examines similar issues in the film medium, has stood the test of time.Laurence Harvey stars as the social climber from humble origins, a role that is the reincarnation of Osborne's "angry young man" Jimmy Porter in "Look Back in Anger." Porter succeeds in marrying a woman above his social rank, then abuses her. But as portrayed by Harvey, the character of Joe Lampton is much more complex, as his driving ambition to win the hand of the daughter of an influential industrialist is balanced by his soulful connection to an older married woman. The self-loathing of Lampton is apparent throughout, as he constantly humiliated by his social superiors. Possibly the worst abuse comes from his future mother-in-law, who is dripping in contempt for what she perceives as a commoner. In the process, Joe becomes nearly as tortured as Raymond Shaw, the protagonist of "The Manchurian Candidate," for which Laurence Harvey will always be remembered.In the portrayal of the younger woman named Susan, Heather Sears is outstanding for her naivety and cheerful optimism in the attraction she feels for Joe Lampton. But it is in the interpretation of the older woman, Alice Aisgill, that the film will always be remembered for the transcendent performance of Simone Signoret.Signoret's portrayal of Alice as the vulnerable French expatriate in a loveless marriage to a British highbrow is almost a mirror image of the social misfit Lampton. The characters bond in their common ground as outsiders in the claustrophobic British class system in the fictional town of Warnley. In virtually all of her scenes, Signoret is magnetic in her sensitivity, as especially apparent in her eyes.Every viewer will have his or her favorite scene in this film. For me, it is moment in the cottage where Joe and Alice have escaped to an idyllic seaside retreat where they rush into the house out of the rain. Joe offers Alice a cigarette, but she refuses. She tells him that she wishes to abstain for smoking and drinking during their holiday for she wants each of their moments together to remain "clear and sharp" in her memory. This unforgettable moment could only be realized by a performer of Signoret's abilities.Led by Signoret, Harvey, and a stellar cast of British actors, this old-style black-and-white film with the rapid-fire pacing and wrenching emotional ending rises to the top as one of the great cinematic experiences of the second half of the twentieth century.

ROOM AT THE TOP is a fine slice of 1950s social realism and by far the best adaptation of the famous novel. It features Laurence Harvey in one of his most famous turns as a brash young accountant who falls in love with two women at the same time. The first is his boss's daughter, a perfect match if her parents weren't against it, and the second is a middle-aged Frenchwoman who offers him endless passion.This film's strength lies in the depth of psychological insight as well as the characterisation. Instead of being long-winded, the plot moves at a cracking pace, building layer upon layer to create a fully-realised world. The cast is perfect, with Simone Signoret a total turn-around from the last film I saw her in (LES DIABOLIQUES) and Harvey himself outstandingly powerful. A fine supporting cast of British character actors help to add to the general milieu and make this unmissable entertainment.

Although it was clearly not intended to be, nor promoted as, a two-hander the fact remains that there are only two actors in Room At The Top; Simone Signoret and Everyone Else. Co-star (and if this isn't a joke I don't know what is) who had actually played Shakespeare on screen may well have paraphrased the Bard and felt moved to say, 'Why, she doth bestride this narrow film like a colossus and we, like petty men, creep under her huge legs to find ourselves dishonourable roles'. Of course Signoret brought considerable acting chops to bear, in the nineteen fifties alone she had appeared in Manages, La Ronde, Casque d'Or, Les Diaboliques, and Therese Raquin, all distinguished titles; Harvey had also managed to amass the odd credit in the same decade, The Dancing Years, The Scarlet Thread, There Is Another Sun, A Killer Walks, Knights Of The Round Table, King Richard And The Crusaders, The Truth About Women. He also managed to stink up the screen as Romeo in an ill-judged Romeo and Juliet. In Room At The Top he is playing Laurence Harvey in much the same way Frank Sinatra played aspects of himself in Meet Danny Wilson; Joe Lampton is an arrogant chip-on-both-shoulders ambitious social climber quite prepared to marry his way to the top: in real life Harvey was an arrogant, ambitious, social climber who married a far better actor, Margaret Leighton, as a stepping-stone' if not an entree to life at the top. At the time (1959) the film probably packed quite a punch but things had come to a pretty pass when an actor who towered over Harvey as a performer, Wilfrid Lawson, was reduced to a couple of uncredited scenes whilst Mr. Mahogany got second billing after Signoret. This rates ten out of ten for Signoret and about half that for the film itself.

Room At The Top filmed in 1959 takes place some ten years earlier in post war Great Britain as veteran Laurence Harvey takes it in his mind to rise from his lower class origins by any means possible. He's a devilishly attractive fellow and if that's what it takes to do it, than so be it. Not like it hasn't been done before on either side of the pond.Harvey's got no family so to speak, his parents were killed in his small town when a German bomb hit their house. He's rootless now and has a crying need to belong somewhere.The similarities in character to novelist John Braine's Joe Lampton and Theodore Dreiser's George Eastman are too obvious to overlook. However unlike Eastman, Lampton as played by Harvey is courting two very different kinds of women. Boss Donald Wolfit's daughter Heather Sears is a young and somewhat inexperienced young lady who's easy prey for Harvey. Wolfit and his wife Ambrosine Phillpotts see what's happening with their daughter, but can't ultimately do anything.But while they're trying Harvey falls in with the unhappily married Simone Signoret. She's married to Allan Cuthbertson who's a cheating dog himself. She's got a lot of passion left in her and even though Harvey's ten years younger, she knows how to show him one real good time. Being French she has a different moral view of things than the folks of her adopted country and she thinks Harvey does as well. He does, but Harvey has his priorities.Room At The Top was something that still couldn't be made in America because of the Code, but at least it was shown here. What Makes Sammy Run, a work by Budd Schulberg never had a big screen adaption and it had similar themes to Room At The Top, Still it got great critical acclaim and two Academy Awards and other nominations.Simone Signoret got one of those Oscars, for Best Actress in 1959. It's a very subtle part she undertakes, in fact she's not the main character, Harvey is. Still when she's on the screen even Harvey's flashier character of Joe Lampton takes a back seat. Signoret is just fabulous as the older and still attractive woman, trapped in a loveless marriage will touch you dearly. She's one of the most beautiful and tragic figures ever done on screen.Harvey was up for Best Actor, but he and the film itself were running in the year of Ben-Hur. He and the picture itself lost to Charlton Heston and the noble character he created on screen. Hermione Baddely who had a role similar to Thelma Ritter's in All About Eve was up for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to Shelley Winters for The Diary Of Anne Frank.Room At The Top with its brutally frank talk of sex mixed with ambition has become a classic and Joe Lampton became Laurence Harvey's signature role. Two sequels with Joe Lampton, Life At The Top and Man At the Top, were spawned from the original, the latter with Lampton played by Kenneth Haigh as Harvey had died by then. It's an enduring classic of the British, nay the English language cinema and should not be missed.