Room at the Top
UK (1959): Drama
Ruthless young working-class Englishman Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) takes a job in a North Country village controlled by millionaire Mr. Brown (Donald Wolfit). Joe resents Brown's class consciousness and vows to rise to the top by wooing the millionaire's daughter, Susan (Heather Sears). Meanwhile he has an affair with married Frenchwoman Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret). Though he regards Alice as a mere self-gratifying conquest, she takes their romance seriously enough to kill herself when Harvey impregnates Susan. Only as he leaves the chapel after marrying the millionaire's daughter does Harvey realize that his "smart" marriage, coupled with the guarantee of a fabulous business career, has been attained at the cost of his soul.
Based on the novel by John Braine and directed by Jack Clayton, Room at the Top was one of the most successful films of the British angry-young-man school; it later spawned sequels -- Life at the Top (1965) and a weekly TV series, "Man at the Top" (1971). (Remus/Continental) (Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide)
6 nominations, 2 Awards
· Actress 1959: Simone Signoret
· Writing (Best Screenplay based on material from another medium) 1959: Neil Paterson
· Best Picture 1959: James Woolf & Sir John Woolf - Producers (Romulus, Continental)
· Actor 1959: Laurence Harvey
· Supporting Actress 1959: Hermione Baddeley
· Directing 1959: Jack Clayton