Room at the top

A searing comment on the hollowness of contemporary values, this justly famous trend-setting Film is concerned with the social and material advancement of Joe Lampton, a young man on the make. Cast includes Hermione Baddeley, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears, Simone Signoret, and Sir Donald Wolfit. Directed by Jack Clayton. Based on the novel by John Braine. Winner of the Academy Awards 1979: Best Actress (Signoret); Best Screenplay Based on Another Medium, Neil Patterson; National Board of Review Award, Young man of low birth moves up the ladder of success by marrying daughter of local industrialist, casting aside an older woman he really loves. Director: Jack Clayton. Cast: Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret.

In late 1940s Yorkshire, England, Joe Lampton is an ambitious young man who has just moved from the dreary factory town of Dufton to assume a secure, but poorly paid, post in the Borough Treasurer's Department. Joe turns for solace to Alice Aisgill, an unhappily married older woman. Joe and Alice have an affair, though he continues his pursuit of Susan Brown. Joe is beaten unconscious by a gang of thugs for making a drunken pass at one of their women, Joe is recovered by Soames in time to marry Susan.