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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»1960s Movies»Movies 1960
    Movies 1960 Movies D 2 Mins Read

    Dark at the Top of the Stairs, The (1960)

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    The solid virtues of a well-made play transferred to film by a sympathetic director and a strong cast are here for all to see.

    William Inge was a successful playwright of the 1950s whose hit plays all became hit movies (Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, Picnic). He wrote a curious but effective mixture of poetic nostalgia and introspective melodrama along Tennessee Williams lines, and while they remain theatrical, they are always involving.

    The setting here is Oklahoma in the 1920s and Robert Preston plays Rubin Flood, the head of a family in times of change.

    Rubin loses his job as a travelling harness salesman when the company goes bankrupt. This adds to his woes at home where his wife Cora (Dorothy McGuire) is frigid because she’s worried about money; his painfully shy teenage daughter Reenie (Shirley Knight) is afraid of going out on dates – although she eventually makes friends with troubled Jewish army cadet, Sammy Golden (Lee Kinsolving) – and his son is a mama’s boy.

    Trying to keep his job troubles a secret from his family, Rubin finally storms out of the house when Cora falsely accuses him of having an affair with widowed hairdresser Mavis Pruitt (Angela Lansbury, who shines in the role).

    Cora calls her sister, Lottie (Eve Arden) to visit who brings her henpecked dentist-husband, Morris (Frank Overton) for support. Their arrival provides one of the most interesting developments of the story and sheds light on the Rubin-Cora battle.

    Rubin Flood
    Robert Preston
    Cora Flood
    Dorothy McGuire
    Lottie Lacey
    Eve Arden
    Morris Lacey
    Frank Overton
    Mavis Pruitt
    Angela Lansbury
    Reenie Flood
    Shirley Knight
    Sonny Flood
    Robert Eyer
    Sammy Golden
    Lee Kinsolving
    Flirt Conroy
    Penney Parker
    Harry Ralston
    Ken Lynch
    Mrs Ralston
    Mary Patton
    Jonah Mills
    Paul Birch
    Mrs Haycox
    Helen Brown
    Jenkins 
    Paul Comi
    Joseph Moody
    Ben Erway
    Edna Harper
    Peg La Centra
    Lydia Harper
    Helen Wallace
    Ed Peabody
    Nelson Leigh
    Harris
    Addison Richards
    Percy Weems
    Charles Seel
    George Williams
    Emerson Treacy
    Harold 
    Robin Warga
    Punky Givens
    Dennis Whitcomb

    Director
    Delbert Mann

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