Joe Lampton returns in this sequel to Room At The Top (1959), which is actually a strong film in its own right. We meet Joe (Laurence Harvey) ten years after his marriage to the boss’s daughter in his northern mill town – but he finds he is being sidelined at work and his private life manipulated by his father-in-law (Donald Wolfit).
Joe seems less of a bastard than when we last saw him – he even ignores an offer of a job in London and keeps away from attractive TV presenter Norah (Honor Blackman).
When he finds his wife Susan (Jean Simmons who replaced Heather Sears who played the role in Room At The Top) is having an affair with their handsome and slimy neighbour Mark (Michael Craig), he reconsiders on both counts.
Joe’s London jaunt – a financial and sexual disaster – is brutally credible, and it is only towards the end of the film when flashbacks from Room At The Top precede an implausibly swift return to power in Warley, that disbelief once more intrudes.
Joe Lampton returned to the small screen in 1970 in the TV series Man at the Top with Kenneth Haigh as Lampton and Zena Walker as his long-suffering wife, Susan.
Joe now had a new home in Surrey’s stockbroker belt and a career as a management consultant.
Joe Lampton
Laurence Harvey Susan Lampton (nee Brown)
Jean Simmons Norah Hauxley
Honor Blackman Mark
Michael Craig Abe Brown
Donald Wolfit Tiffield
Robert Morley Sybil
Margaret Johnston Mrs Margaret Brown
Ambrosine Phillpotts George Aisgill
Allan Cuthbertson Harry Lampton
Paul A. Martin Barbara Lampton
Frances Cosslett Ralph Hethersett
Ian Shand Graffham
George A. Cooper Mottram
Nigel Davenport McLelland
Andrew Laurence
Director
Ted Kotcheff
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When he finds his wife Susan (Jean Simmons who replaced Heather Sears who played the role in Room At The Top) is having an affair with their handsome and slimy neighbour Mark (Michael Craig), he reconsiders on both counts.
