Room at the Top - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Room at the Top or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Room at the Top

[elmer]

Features the first open reference to the sex act in a British film.

[manuel]

There was some opposition to the casting of Laurence Harvey, as he could not do a realistic northern accent. In addition there was some concern that audiences in the UK might not accept the Jewish Harvey as Joe Lampton.

[phyllis]

The film was noted for the excessive amount of cigarette smoking. Both Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret died from smoking-related cancers.

[gabriel]

Initially no British cinema chains wanted to touch the film, as the British Board of Film Classification had given it an X certificate, then usually synonymous with exploitation fare. Eventually the ABC chain took a chance and picked it up for distribution, scoring a huge critical and commercial hit in the process.

[caroline]

The honoring of leftist French actress Simone Signoret with an Oscar led veteran right wing columnist Hedda Hopper to resign from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[brent]

Jack Clayton's directorial film debut.

[nora]

Producer James Woolf originally intended to cast Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons in the lead roles.

[jessie]

Features the only Oscar nominated performances of Laurence Harvey and Hermione Baddeley.

[riley]

Vivien Leigh was initially offered the role later played by Simone Signoret.

[jessica]

Mordecai Richler made an uncredited contribution to the screenplay.

[francisco]

This was essentially the first British film to openly depict adultery and suggest that sex was an enjoyable act. Naturally, this landed it in hot water with the censors, who initially refused to give it a release certificate. It eventually acquired an "X" certificate and went on to become a major box-office success, opening the floodgates for more adult fare.

[riley]

First credited film role of Ian Hendry.

[charlie]

Film debut of Jack Hedley.

[marc]

The only film that year nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and not Best Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes.

[javier]

Released in the same year as Anatomy of a Murder (1959), an American film that also challenged censors with its sexually explicit content. It was a major box-office success, too, and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

[gerald]

At 2 minutes and 19 seconds, Hermione Baddeley's performance is the shortest Oscar-nominated performance in movie history.

[morris]

Before passing the film with an "X" certificate, the BBFC required some dialogue changes. The word "bitch" was changed to "witch", and "Don't waste your lust on her" was changed to the tamer "Don't lust after her". There were also considerable edits made to the descriptions of Alice's death in the car crash, including mention of her "crawling about" and being "scalped".

[bryan]

Although much emphasis is placed on Alice (Simone Signoret) being a lot older than her young lover Joe (Laurence Harvey), in real life Signoret was 37 years old, only eight years older than Harvey when the film was made in 1958.

[kristina]

Laurence Harvey's performance was widely considered weak, with one critic suggesting that Wilfrid Lawson had acted him off the screen, even though he was only in one scene.