Room at the Top

In Room at the Top, Joe (Laurence Harvey) is a young, headstrong accountant who has just found a job in a small town.  With the help of a friend, he gets joins a theater club to meet young and beautiful Susan (Heather Sears).  While Joe attempts to woo her, he becomes closer to an older woman, Alice (Simone Signoret).  Very soon, Joe experiences the struggles and strife of being with two women and ends up with tragic consequences.

Susan is a not only an innocent beauty, but a high class girl.  Her father owns a factory, and once Joe is in her family’s radar, he is seen as a threat.  You see, Joe comes from a town that is now largely piles of rubble from the war and is considered lower class.  Joe pursues Susan, partially for a possible future of gaining higher class status, but also just for lustful kicks.  But a clean cut girl like Susan is hard to get to, especially with such protective parents, and in the end will she even be what Joe really wants?

Then there is Alice, a friend Joe never meant to fall in love with.  While Susan is a wide-eyed girl, Alice is a strong, seasoned and careful woman.  She is ten years older than Joe and skeptical, (not so much of his intentions, she seems comfortable with casual sex) but of getting too serious.  Alice is a much more interesting and likeable woman than Susan.  She is smarter, more cultured with a lifetime more of experiences than girlish Susan.  Even better, she is a surprisingly modern feminist, seeing herself and her body as more than a plaything for Joe.  I did not expect these bold conversations from a film from 1959.  When Alice finally does fall completely and trust Joe, she falls hard, and losing him would tear her apart.

A film with so much lust, adultery and the idea of sex being an enjoyable act landed Room at the Top with an X rating by the ABC.  It was so racy for 1959 that film distributors were afraid to touch the film.  However, once it was released, it proved to be a big hit, both critically and financially, and ushered in a new age of adult themes in film.

At the Oscars Room at the Top was nominated for six awards, including Best Picture.  Jack Clayton was nominated for best director, Harvey for best actor and Hermione Baddeley was nominated for best supporting actress for only being in a couple short scenes, but making quite an impact.  The film won the award for best adapted screenplay and Signoret won the Oscar for lead actress.  The way she can put up walls and let them fall and become so vulnerable earned her that Oscar.

Readers, I am so happy to have finally seen Room at the Top.  It was worth the wait and such a surprise.  The acting is superb all around and the story is juicy, enticing and pulls you in so well that you end up just as crushed at the end.  This film is an amazing ride, and i really wish it was more widely available.  I got it off Amazon UK as a second hand DVD, the only one I could find.

“I own my own body and I’m not ashamed of it.”

Ship of Fools

It’s true, the world is quite the bowl of mixed nuts.  Some of the most interesting interactions you will ever see are of complete strangers from all walks of life crammed into one place.  As the title suggests, this ship, sailing the Atlantic in 1933, is full of all kinds of fools and their time together can be just as enlightening as it can be disheartening.

Stanley Kramer directs a whole slew of characters and big name stars in this film voyage. Some of the passengers include a proud German spouting Nazi ideals (José Ferrer), a young artistic couple with a rocky relationship (George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley), a lonely old rich woman (Vivien Leigh), a crass American man (Lee Marvin), a kind Jewish salesman (Heinz Rühmann) and a little person who observes life onboard and narrates to us (Michael Dunn).  Along the way, the ship picks up hundreds of poor Mexicans immigrating to Europe.  Since the accommodations are all accounted for, they have to sleep on the lower deck, but are just happy to be aboard.  There’s also the ship’s doctor (Oskar Werner) who becomes close to a woman being transported to a prison (Simone Signoret).

When dealing with so many different people in a film, it’s especially important to make sure every character has a distinct voice, motive and style.  Characters too similar to each other can easily confuse the viewer, but thankfully that is not a problem at all here.

It is easy to see that all these characters represent their present world of 1933.  Ferrer’s character is often rambling on about his pure German race, and most people just shrug and turn away.  Rühmann’s Jewish man doesn’t believe anything will really come of the German’s blind hatred of his people.  Sadly, it is only Dunn’s character who is separated enough from the rest of society to see that it will happen.  And Segal’s passionate artist becomes more and more disheartened as upsetting events unfold around the ship.

Some of the most memorable scenes are when the Flamenco dancers are entertaining.  The dancers costumes are beautiful and around the room passengers are enjoying the festive atmosphere wearing party hats.  Ferrer appropriately wears a devil horns cap.  All around the dancing are the little personal stories unfolding more.  Segal refuses to dance, Marvin is drunkenly trying to lure one of the young dancers to sleep with him and a teenage girl is upset that no one has asked her to dance.  It’s all entertaining drama to watch at a distance.

There is a story and a character for everyone in Ship of Fools.  It might not make a bad party film, if hosted well  Perhaps try the murder-mystery style of assigning characters to your guests.    It is not often that a good film can mold so many memorable characters and compelling stories into one solid film.  Between the intelligently constructive narrative and the beautiful black and white cinematography, I completely recommend Ship of Fools.

“I have my own minority group.”