Life at the Top

Life at the Top follows Joe Lampton, a working-class man who married his boss's daughter and now lives in the northern English mill town of Warley with his wife Susan and their two children. The marriage has brought him wealth and a senior position, but he finds his career stalled and his private life controlled by his father-in-law. Frustrated by his situation and by his wife's affair with a local man named Mark, he turns to Norah Hauxley, a television presenter, and considers a move to London.

The film is a drama directed by Ted Kotcheff, made between Tiara Tahiti and Wake in Fright in his filmography, from a screenplay by Mordecai Richler. Laurence Harvey plays Joe, with Jean Simmons as Susan, Honor Blackman as Norah, Michael Craig as Mark, Donald Wolfit as Abe Brown and Robert Morley as Tiffield, among a credited cast of 43. It was produced by John Woolf and James Woolf for Romulus Films and runs 117 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 from 781 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.9 from 17 votes, so the wider audience sample is markedly more favourable than the smaller one.