Life at the Top (1965)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, Donald Wolfit
Synopsis:
Years have passed but all that was implicit from the end of Room at the Top (1959) has come to pass: Joe is kept busy writing reports while his father-in-law plans to pass over him in a merger deal; Aisgill, the man he cuckolded, supports his election to the council so that his crooked property deal is waved through; he has lost interest in his wife who looks for solace elsewhere, and everyone seems to embrace the swinging lifestyle; meanwhile his son is unhappy at boarding school and seems set to become a chip off the old block, with a chip on his shoulder to match.
Review:
Oswald Morris's cinematography is a fair substitute for Freddie Francis's in this tardy sequel, and Simmons is a positive improvement on Sears. However, Harvey's self-pitying sarcasm and wavering Yorkshire accent set the seal on what was always an egregious piece of miscasting, making him sound more than ever like a rejected nancy boy. The scenario (Lampton strikes back but comes to realise his own pathetic limitations) is very much a by-numbers affair, and the Blackman fling is excessively hard to swallow. Solid touches remain - observing the pigeon fanciers at the start, the speech to the council, the final metaphor of the factory gates enclosing him in his gilded coffin, with the words 'what I'll settle for' echoing in our ears.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, Donald Wolfit
Synopsis:
Years have passed but all that was implicit from the end of Room at the Top (1959) has come to pass: Joe is kept busy writing reports while his father-in-law plans to pass over him in a merger deal; Aisgill, the man he cuckolded, supports his election to the council so that his crooked property deal is waved through; he has lost interest in his wife who looks for solace elsewhere, and everyone seems to embrace the swinging lifestyle; meanwhile his son is unhappy at boarding school and seems set to become a chip off the old block, with a chip on his shoulder to match.
Review:
Oswald Morris's cinematography is a fair substitute for Freddie Francis's in this tardy sequel, and Simmons is a positive improvement on Sears. However, Harvey's self-pitying sarcasm and wavering Yorkshire accent set the seal on what was always an egregious piece of miscasting, making him sound more than ever like a rejected nancy boy. The scenario (Lampton strikes back but comes to realise his own pathetic limitations) is very much a by-numbers affair, and the Blackman fling is excessively hard to swallow. Solid touches remain - observing the pigeon fanciers at the start, the speech to the council, the final metaphor of the factory gates enclosing him in his gilded coffin, with the words 'what I'll settle for' echoing in our ears.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, Donald Wolfit
Synopsis:
Years have passed but all that was implicit from the end of Room at the Top (1959) has come to pass: Joe is kept busy writing reports while his father-in-law plans to pass over him in a merger deal; Aisgill, the man he cuckolded, supports his election to the council so that his crooked property deal is waved through; he has lost interest in his wife who looks for solace elsewhere, and everyone seems to embrace the swinging lifestyle; meanwhile his son is unhappy at boarding school and seems set to become a chip off the old block, with a chip on his shoulder to match.
Review:
Oswald Morris's cinematography is a fair substitute for Freddie Francis's in this tardy sequel, and Simmons is a positive improvement on Sears. However, Harvey's self-pitying sarcasm and wavering Yorkshire accent set the seal on what was always an egregious piece of miscasting, making him sound more than ever like a rejected nancy boy. The scenario (Lampton strikes back but comes to realise his own pathetic limitations) is very much a by-numbers affair, and the Blackman fling is excessively hard to swallow. Solid touches remain - observing the pigeon fanciers at the start, the speech to the council, the final metaphor of the factory gates enclosing him in his gilded coffin, with the words 'what I'll settle for' echoing in our ears.