Man at the Top

Man at the Top, made in 1973, is for everyone who relishes the power-struggle of the bedroom. It is Big Business melodrama, with 'social significance' trimmings, which shows the durability of Joe Lampton, the anti-hero created by novelist John Braine in 1957 best-seller, Room at the Top. Joe already established himself at the Top in two earlier films and now, played by Kenneth Haigh who takes over the role of the poletarian charmer from Laurence Harvey, he has schemed, flattered and seduced his way even higher to be managing director of a huge multinational conglomerate headed by an even more ruthless tycoon (Harry Andrews). The tycoon's wife (Nanette Newman) is soon reacting to the rough vitality of Joe's class-conscious sexuality; so is his daughter (Mary Maude). But the bedroom Casanova's self-assurance suddenly falters. Not because of bedroom inadequacy, but on the rocks of business morality. Can the industrial empire of which he's a part really be selling an untested drug which makes thousands of Third-World women sterile? Joe sets off North to infiltrate his boss's secret country house confabs-and discovers that all may be in love and war, but in Big Business it's absolutely foul. Some dialogue with real teeth puts a grip into the business skulduggery, with it's apparently unruffled surface manners and deep-down deviousnes, not to say downright thuggery. There's a cross-country hunt that teaches the awkward upstart what it's like not to be one of the pack. There's also an amusing interlude when Joe picks up two girl hitch-hikers, one black (Margaret Heald) and one white (Angela Bruce), and finds that a three-in-a-shower is an attractive way for a tired businessman to relax. In short, Man at the Top is a well-plotted, crisply acted, immorality fable for today - and, if cynical ending signifies Joe's survival for the climb up to the next Top, for tomorrow, too. © Hammer Productions.