Der Weg nach oben

There's a rather angry man by name of Joe, he's been shaped by past events and they bestow, a ruthless urge to find success, fiscal and personal progress, and he's found a girl who'll give him just the tow. Susan Brown is being courted by another, but Joe's target is for him to be the lover, her family oozes affluence, the father has great influence, although he's far too working class for Susan's mother. Into the works, a spanner enters and distracts, a married woman pulls Joe over to new tracks, Alice is somewhat mature, but she's opened up a door, and Joe's struggling to keep himself intact.

We follow Joe Lampton as he attempts to climb the social ladder shortly after the close of WWII. He's a dislikeable bloke, unstable, abusive with a very short fuse, most likely because of the life he's led to date, but still no excuse. He soon finds out that dreams don't come true, that happiness is fleeting and that the grass isn't always greener. Two outstanding performances from Laurence Harvey and especially Simone Signoret (watch her in Les Diaboliques if you haven't already), but this needs to be watched with the era it was written and subsequently filmed in mind, as it doesn't carry over well into more modern times and parallels.

This is an excellent film. The human traits of ambition and greed are played out wonderfully by the well selected cast. Harvey is his usual dour self and the industrial settings of urban England add to the melancholy mood of the film. He is so good as the misguided protagonist that you end up supporting his machinations. For me it seemed to reflect the constant battle between the classes, and the value of merit and truth in life.

This is a superb movie. The plot is reminiscent of "An American Tragedy." But it takes place in England, and the hero is very much an Angry Young Man. Nevertheless, it is so beautifully written and directed it feels as fresh and new as if the such issues had never before been touched in movies.

Laurence Harvey, whom I'm generally not crazy about, is superb as the lower-class guy determined to make it big. He sets his sights on the boss's daughter, appealingly played by Heather Sears. But something happens to sidetrack him. And that something -- Simone Signoret -- is the main reason to see and to cherish "Room At The Top." She is very believable as the slightly shady older woman with whom he has a romance. And her eyes! Her eyes, suggesting wisdom and great depths of sadness, will break you heart. It seems like a simple performance and it is uncluttered, stark. But it is flawless. I can think of almost no other performance by a woman in an English-language movie that compares to Signoret's.

This underseen British classic is like a breath of fresh air. Try as it might, prior to the 1960s and the American New Wave, Hollywood could never accomplish an effective sense of realism. Across the Atlantic, the story was an altogether different one: much of their shooting took place on-location in the breathtaking British countryside, or otherwise in the the shabby slums of the lower-class, successfully identifying audiences with the "common man." This realism is clearly evident in many of the Ealing comedies of the late 1940s and 1950s, but, with 'Room at the Top (1959),' British film-making reached a new peak of maturity. A frank and uncompromising treatment of sexuality and class prejudices, Jack Clayton's extraordinary feature-length debut was a seminal work in the development of adult-themed cinema, a commercial and critical success despite being branded with an X-rating in the UK. The brilliance of this film, coupled with that of 'The Innocents (1961)' two years later, leads me to wonder why I don't hear of this director with much greater frequency.

Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) is an ambitious young government accountant, proud of his lower-class heritage but determined to ascend the social ladder. Though he loathes the pretension and prejudices of Britain's wealthy upper-class, he is nonetheless determined to become one of them, a hypocrisy that triggers with in him an indescribable inner-torment. With this goal in mind, Lampton sets his sights on the innocent, virginal Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the most powerful man in town. He tries vainly to justify his advances through the pretext of love, all the while knowing that his intentions are strictly opportunistic. Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), a married French woman ten years his senior, proves Lampton's greatest obstacle to wealth, for he soon finds himself falling in love with her, for real this time. Torn between his affection for Alice and his ambitions towards prosperity and respectability, Lampton must eventually choose between the two, the consequences of his decision leaving an empty void where once there had been a bright, fresh and conscientious young man.

Impeccably shot in crisp black-and-white by Freddie Francis, 'Room at the Top' is a refreshing dose of mature drama, and occasionally an angry, scathing assault on the British class system. Laurence Harvey, in the main role, positively burns with rage as the moral-deprived young businessman, progressively less and less identifiable to the audience as he becomes those whom he despises (indeed, near the film's end, he even goes by the name of his sworn foe, Jack Wales). Simone Signoret, a surprise Oscar-winner that year, is smooth, knowing and assertive, with just a fatal hint of vulnerability, as Harvey's sincere but ultimately hopeless lover. Of the main performers, Heather Sears is least impressive, but her appearance could nonetheless put an end to a nagging question: who voiced the child-actor Martin Stephens in 'Village of the Damned (1960)' and 'The Innocents (1961)?' Though no such dubbing was credited, I realised straight away, without a quiver of uncertainty, that Sears spoke with exactly the same voice – either she dubbed Stephens, or a third-party dubbed the both of them.

I recently viewed this film from 1959 and was totally riveted to it. Directed by Jack Clayton, it is a timeless love story set in post-war Britain with the incomparable Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey at the centre of the storm. The background highlights the struggle between class and ambition in 1950's Britain. Laurence Harvey plays Joe Lampton, the "angry young man" who is motivated to make something of himself in a world that he is not comfortable with. Harvey portrays a new kid on the block who has taken a job at city hall, where he works with other young men like himself. He and his buddies remind us of randy high school students discovering the world and women all at once.

While Joe shows all the aptitudes necessary for advancement, he is a man of principle who inherits the hostility of the working class that flares up when provoked by snide remarks about where he came from. He has trouble playing the game but no trouble attracting the attention of the ladies. At first attracted to the daughter of a local tycoon, he knows that he is an outsider and seeks the advice and friendship of an older woman - the genuine and magnetic Signoret, who plays the lovelorn wife of a local businessman and philanderer. Over time, he falls deeply in love with the older woman and the time they spend alone provides some of the most compelling scenes you are likely to find in the cinema of the 1950's. After successfully wooing her, he runs headlong into the realities of life, leading to a gut-wrenching climax, which you won't forget.