Surprisingly good sequel to Claytons original

Bingley, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret in Room at the Top (1958)

Joan Bennett, Paul Henreid, Leslie Brooks, and Eduard Franz in Hollow Triumph (1948)

Brian Donlevy, Howard Duff, and Peggy Dow in Shakedown (1950)

Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, and Shari in Tiger Bay (1959)

Rossano Brazzi, Louis Jourdan, Dorothy McGuire, Maggie McNamara, Jean Peters, and Clifton Webb in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

Laurence Harvey in Life at the Top (1965)

Laurence Harvey

Jean Simmons

Honor Blackman

John Braine

Mordecai Richler

In this sequel to Room at the Top (1958), Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) thinks he has really made it by marrying the boss&apos;s daughter in his northern mill town. But he finds he is being sidelined at work and his private life manipu...

Ted Kotcheff

Life at the Top

As sequels go, this isn&apos;t half bad. Aspirational, working-class lad &quot;Joe&quot; (Laurence Harvey) has managed to marry the boss&apos;s daughter &quot;Susan&quot; (Jean Simmons), has the semi detached trappings of middle class luxury but his life consists little of substance. His career is going nowhere fast and he is soon being tempted by the visiting television star &quot;Norah&quot; (Honor Blackman) as his wife embarks on an affair de coeur of her own with the rather unfortunately wooden Michael Craig (&quot;Mark&quot;). Has he the fortitude to go it alone; does he even really want to? The story isn&apos;t as potent as &quot;Room at the Top&quot; (1959) but both Harvey and Simmons as well as a strong series of cameos from the likes of Sir Donald Wolfit and Robert Morley still work well to convey many of the frustrations of a young man trying to escape the bonds of a class system and of a woman who has never had to want for anything, efficiently. It looks good. The photography is intense, almost intrusive at times, and the score from the accomplished Richard Addinsell adds much to the story and in many ways substitutes for a rather wordy and descriptive narrative. It&apos;s a good film, not a great one, and it is good to see Simmons remind us just how adaptable an actress she was.

As sequels go, this isn't half bad. Aspirational, working-class lad "Joe" (Laurence Harvey) has managed to marry the boss's daughter "Susan" (Jean Simmons), has the semi detached trappings of middle class luxury but his life consists little of substance. His career is going nowhere fast and he is soon being tempted by the visiting television star "Norah" (Honor Blackman) as his wife embarks on an affair de coeur of her own with the rather unfortunately wooden Michael Craig ("Mark"). Has he the fortitude to go it alone; does he even really want to? The story isn't as potent as "Room at the Top" (1959) but both Harvey and Simmons as well as a strong series of cameos from the likes of Sir Donald Wolfit and Robert Morley still work well to convey many of the frustrations of a young man trying to escape the bonds of a class system and of a woman who has never had to want for anything, efficiently. It looks good. The photography is intense, almost intrusive at times, and the score from the accomplished Richard Addinsell adds much to the story and in many ways substitutes for a rather wordy and descriptive narrative. It's a good film, not a great one, and it is good to see Simmons remind us just how adaptable an actress she was.

In this sequel to Room at the Top (1958), Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) thinks he has really made it by marrying the boss's daughter in his northern mill town. But he finds he is being sidelined at work and his private life manipulated by his father-in-law.

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Life at the Top

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