Thursday 23 March 2017

Room at the Top (1958 Jack Clayton)

Well, if I were Simone Signoret I wouldn't have gone back anywhere near Laurence Harvey's vileness, and Heather Sears is rather forgiving of his affair too. Donald Wolfit is the powerful industrialist, Donald Houston Harvey's decent friend, Hermione Baddeley harbours the adulterers, Allan Cuthbertson (familiar from Performance) is Signoret's bastard husband and John Westbrook an obnoxious love rival.

OK he does have an inch of compassion but so what? Film plays rather badly now, with fake northern accents at every turn.


Freddie Francis keeps it dark; Mario Nascimbene's music soulful; Ralph Kemplen - noted for his work on dialogue scenes, most evident here in pivotal confrontation between Harvey and Wolfit - edited.

I am not Simone Signoret.

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