Jack Clayton directed a handful of movies (a total of 10) beginning in 1944 and ending in 1992. He's perhaps best known (if at all) for three: "The Pumpkin Eater", "The Innocents" and this film, "Room at the Top". It's remembered nowadays primarily (and justifiably) due to the extraordinarily rich, earthy performance of Simone Signoret.
"Room at the Top" was a critical and box office success due in part to what was (at the time) some fairly straight forward dialog about sex. Seen from the vantage point of 50 years later, much of that dialog is quaint and square. There are several films of this time period (like "Pillow Talk" and Jack Clayton's follow-up to "Room at the Top", his adaptation of Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers") that pushed the boundaries of accepted tastes and reaped box office success from it. One could argue that without it, these films would not have been successful. "Room at the Top" probably would have ended up in this category were it not for Simone Signoret. Signoret's performance feels full bodied, rich and real. She's the heart and soul of the film and she's years ahead of her time. She acts the way Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn and Meryl Streep would act later on in the 70s. (It's astonishing to me that the Academy managed to recognize this and awarded her the Best Actress award in 1959. I suspect it helped that she spoke English as it is easier for a wider audience to easily understand and react to.) When the films pivotal tragedy strikes, it's impact is completely understandable because of her. The rest of the film is extremely well made but no other character in it has the depth and honest charm of Signoret. (SPOILER: My sole quibble is not with Signoret's performance but with her characters design. To me, it didn't make complete sense that a woman of such earthy charm and self knowledge would or could fall apart the way she does when Joe Lampton is forced to abandon her. In the scene where she tells Lampton about how she once posed nude for an artist, she comes across as a woman with an independent mind and spirit who (despite the heartbreak) could and would recover from such abandonment. Her "end" seems more of a contrived plot driver than a realist outcome.)
"Room at the Top" was a critical and box office success due in part to what was (at the time) some fairly straight forward dialog about sex. Seen from the vantage point of 50 years later, much of that dialog is quaint and square. There are several films of this time period (like "Pillow Talk" and Jack Clayton's follow-up to "Room at the Top", his adaptation of Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers") that pushed the boundaries of accepted tastes and reaped box office success from it. One could argue that without it, these films would not have been successful. "Room at the Top" probably would have ended up in this category were it not for Simone Signoret. Signoret's performance feels full bodied, rich and real. She's the heart and soul of the film and she's years ahead of her time. She acts the way Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn and Meryl Streep would act later on in the 70s. (It's astonishing to me that the Academy managed to recognize this and awarded her the Best Actress award in 1959. I suspect it helped that she spoke English as it is easier for a wider audience to easily understand and react to.) When the films pivotal tragedy strikes, it's impact is completely understandable because of her. The rest of the film is extremely well made but no other character in it has the depth and honest charm of Signoret. (SPOILER: My sole quibble is not with Signoret's performance but with her characters design. To me, it didn't make complete sense that a woman of such earthy charm and self knowledge would or could fall apart the way she does when Joe Lampton is forced to abandon her. In the scene where she tells Lampton about how she once posed nude for an artist, she comes across as a woman with an independent mind and spirit who (despite the heartbreak) could and would recover from such abandonment. Her "end" seems more of a contrived plot driver than a realist outcome.)