Meanwhile, Harvey has been seduced by older, world-weary Simone Signoret. He leads a double life as pursuer of Sears and lover of Signoret, who is married to the abusive and frequently absent Alan Cuthbertson. Harvey carries on his affair with Signoret in the apartment of Signoret friend Hermione Badderly, who picked up an Oscar nomination for her brief late film hectoring of Harvey.
How I felt about it. Although less remembered today, Room at the Top was highly influential upon initial release. It rattled the Production Code, won Academy Awards, made a star out of Laurence Harvey, and helped launch a series of British "working man" films, culminating in Alfie (1966). Those films all strived to be more "working man" than Room at the Top, and while they may have succeeded in this, that doesn't mean that they were nearly as effective.
That is because, as in The Manchurian Candidate, Room at the Top is all about the tumult in the bleak soul of Laurence Harvey. Here is a man who boasts to his friends that he will become a rich man someday soon, with his ticket to glory in the form of marriage to wealthy industrialist's daughter Heather Sears. While honest toward everyone else, he lies to her, professing his love when what he is really after is the chance to show up the patronizing upper class snobs, especially sneering war hero John Westbrook and Sears' icy socialite mother, Ambrosine Phillpotts, who perhaps infuriates Harvey most of all. But Sears' father, Donald Wolfit, the powerful robber baron himself, appears to like the unpredictably moody Harvey even as he teases and tests him.
But there is one person who can look into the prickly soul of Harvey and find the romantic hero within. It doesn't matter that she is older and carries a few extra pounds. She adores Harvey for what he is, a good looking man whose oozing angst can be readily manipulated. Unluckily for her, his ambitious half is more successful at changing his environment than his romantic half. That is, he is better as a ruthless dowry hunter than as a now and forever soul mate.
How others will see it. The black and white cinematography and drab settings will quickly alienate viewers accustomed to modern eye candy fare. But classic movie fans will enjoy the movie, despite its bitter atmosphere. Harvey is immediately recognized from his role in the famous dark comedy The Manchurian Candidate, where he played a similar character. Signoret should also be familiar, as she was the female lead in Diabolique. Lovely Heather Sears was also the love interest in Sons and Lovers, which received scads of Oscar nominations, and she received an Oscar nod herself as the handicapped title character in The Story of Esther Costello, which was also produced by the present film's director, Jack Clayton.
But Room at the Top has much more to offer than a compelling cast. It has a remarkably insightful script by Neil Paterson, based on the John Braine novel. Simone Signoret benefits the most from the screenplay, given languid lines that combine present pleasure with future foreboding.