Life at the Top

Having ridden roughshod over the citizens of Warnley in Room at the Top, Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) leaves Yorkshire in search of the beautiful south in this disappointing sequel. The John Braine novel on which it is based admittedly lacks the bite and insight of its predecessor, but Mordecai Richler's adaptation and Ted Kotcheff's direction capture little of the spirit of swinging London, let alone the actions and emotions of a ruthlessly ambitious "angry young man". Harvey fails to rekindle the fire of his Oscar-nominated performance in the first film, and Jean Simmons is shamefully wasted as his put-upon wife.