Room at the Top

Room at the Top (1958) is a British drama by Jack Clayton you can watch online on iFILM. Joe Lampton, a working-class ex-sergeant turned town-hall clerk, arrives in a grim northern factory town with one fixed idea: to climb out of his class, whatever it costs.

His plan is cold-blooded — court Susan, the young daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and marry his way into a circle that would never otherwise let a man like him through the door. Laurence Harvey plays that ambition with very little mercy for his own character. What complicates everything is Alice, a married Frenchwoman older than Joe and the only person he stops performing for. Simone Signoret took the Best Actress Oscar for the part, and it's easy to see why: she's the one fully alive soul in a world of people wearing masks.

Adapted from John Braine's novel, the film blew a hole in polite British cinema with its frank talk of sex, class and the price of getting ahead. It helped launch the "angry young men" wave and picked up a second Oscar for its screenplay. A bitter look at ambition that hasn't dated a day. Stream Room at the Top (1958) online on iFILM.