Based on the best-selling novel by John Braine, Room At The Top was Jack Clayton’s debut feature and is widely regarded as the film that kickstarted the British New Wave.

Starring Laurence Harvey (Women of Twilight, The Silent Enemy), Simone Signoret (Les Diaboliques, Ship of Fools), Heather Sears (The Story of Esther Costello, The Phantom of the Opera) and Donald Wolfit (Lawrence of Arabia, Beckett), Room At The Top went on to become a major box-office success and paved the way for films that examined notions of class and sex more frankly than ever before. The film also gained widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two: Best Actress (Signoret) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Paterson). At 2 minutes and 19 seconds, supporting actress Hermione Baddeley’s (Mary Poppins, Brighton Rock) performance is the shortest Oscar®-nominated performance in movie history.

In post-war industrial Yorkshire, Joe Lampton (Lawrence Harvey) aims to seduce the boss’s daughter as he attempts to climb the corporate ladder at work. But when his background holds him back, Joe seeks comfort with the unhappily married Alice (Simone Signoret), beginning an affair that will have devastating consequences. 

Featuring clear references to sex and adultery, it was a controversial script that eventually saw the film become one of the first mainstream releases to have an “X” certificate.