This film won an Oscar, as did Simone Signoret for best actress and the screenwriter Neil Paterson for best screenplay. It made a huge hit when it was released, and it had a major social impact in Britain as well. Based on the best-selling novel by John Braine, the film dealt with the aspirations of the working class to rise in the world, and the intimidation they felt from the rich upper middle class, in this case a Yorkshire mill-owner, played with ruthless honesty and typical Yorkshire bluntness by Donald Wolfit. The hero, or I should really say anti-hero, of the story is Joe Lampton, played by Lawrence Harvey. His desire to get on in life is all-consuming, and he is desperate to escape the row cottage in the small Yorkshire mill town where he has grown up with his widowed mother. He was in the RAF in the War, but was only a sergeant, and spent most of the War as a POW. It is 1947 and he has now returned to civilian life and has to decide what to do. So he moves to a larger mill town, which is not an entirely working class location, and gets a job in the offices of the local textile mill. On his very first day, he sees the pretty young daughter of the mill owner and decides he is going to 'get' her, both because he wants her and as a means of advancement. He is brutally frank about wanting to 'marry a million pounds'. He wants to get to the 'top'. Wolfit\s daughter is played by the young Heather Sears. It is a great pity that she did not appear in the sequel film LIFE AT THE TOP (1965, see my next review), and that she was replaced with Jean Simmons, who was not right for the part, and the difference in tone destroyed much of the continuity. Heather Sears was absolutely perfect. She played the daughter as a sweet, dreamy, but spoilt and wilful creature lost in her romantic notions. She is completely dazzled by Larry Harvey and in love with him, and keeps saying to him as things work out for them: 'Isn't it wonderful?' For her, she is living out a romantic dream. But she is far from a passionate creature in the carnal sense, which is essential to the story. For that side of things, Harvey has his own passionate love affair with the woman who is to be the one true love of his life, played by Simone Signoret with overwhelming soulful intensity. Signoret could say more with her bedroom eyes than almost any actress one can think of. You can see her thinking, and what is more, you can see her feeling. That takes some doing in moments without dialogue. She certainly deserved her Oscar. Larry Harvey's performance is wonderful and dominates the film, as indeed it should. The film is magnificently directed by Jack Clayton, and is one of his finest achievements. The cinematography by Ossie Morris is even better than his usual superb standard, with Brian West as operator. I knew (at a later date, not when this was made) so many people connected with this film, not least Larry and Jack. Alas, I never met Signoret. That would have been something. This film is a real classic, powerful, emotional, upsetting, compulsive viewing, and deeply tragic. It is what can be called without hesitation 'the real thing'.
Review of Room at the Top
