“RISE OF THE ANGRY YOUNG MAN”

By Raymond Benson

Along with the French New Wave that kick-started in 1959, Britain had its own informal New Wave of what was referred to as the “angry young man” or “kitchen sink” dramas. They began on the stage with such playwrights as John Osborne (whose play, Look Back in Anger, became one of the British New Wave’s seminal works on film). Filmmakers like Jack Clayton, Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, and Karel Reisz are most often associated with the movement, which presented gritty, realistic tales of domestic or socio-economic situations involving working class families and/or single protagonists struggling to get ahead in an England that hadn’t quite pulled herself out of the post-war doldrums.

Room at the Top was one of the first—and best—of the bunch, and even more remarkable is that it was Jack Clayton’s feature directorial debut. Made on a low budget in stark black and white (photographed by the great Freddie Francis), Room stars Laurence Harvey as the angry young man, Joe, who migrates from a small English town to a larger one in order to work his way to the “top”—the area of the city where the wealthy and powerful reside. Ambitious to boot, Joe starts off with a lowly job in the borough treasurer’s office but has his eyes on much more, including the decidedly off-limits Susan (Heather Sears), the beautiful daughter of the most powerful man in the community. While he’s wooing her, though, Joe begins an at-first casual, then frighteningly serious, affair with Alice, an older French woman (Simone Signoret) who is in an unhappy marriage. Both Susan’s parents and Alice’s husband eventually learn what’s going on and set out to foil Joe’s respective relationships, as well as his standing in the societal bubble where he resides.

It sounds dreary when capsulized in this way, but in fact Room at the Top is an engaging, beautifully acted, and well-written drama that is as much a character study as it is a comment on the social problems facing Britain at the time. Its harsh frankness was shocking back then, forcing the picture to be marketed “for mature audiences only” (it was still nine years before the U.S. movie ratings were installed). This was adult stuff.

Nevertheless, audiences and critics took to it, for the film became an international success. In America, it ended up being nominated for Oscars—Best Picture, Best Director for Clayton, Best Actor for Harvey, Best Supporting Actress for Hermione Baddeley (in an appearance that holds the record for briefest on-screen time), and winning the Best Actress award for Signoret and the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy for Neil Paterson.

Kino Lorber’s new 1920x1080p restoration looks very good, is sharp and striking, and comes with an audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger and theatrical trailers for the picture and other Kino titles.

Room at the Top is a relic of its time, perhaps, but it’s a classic example of fine British filmmaking where the pizazz is in the writing, acting, and direction. Highly recommended.

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