Life at the Top (Columbia Pictures) (1965)

SCAM wrara1enms;y AS Tarvey’s wife, is restless, bored and betraying him with his own best friend. It is this, as well as his own discontent, that sends Har Advance ————— vey into an unsatisfactory romance with a young television performer who, for her part, is perfectly willing to accept him only as long as he can help her own career. She is the feminine counterpart of the earlier climber. Advance audiences have applauded both “Life at the Top” and each of its stars. Harvey reportedly is superb as the d'sillusioned young executive who thought he had it made; Miss Simmons is said to be equally fine as the hungering, voluptuous wife and mother. Honor Blackman, who won her own special fame as the leather-garbed girl who tossed James Bond around in “Goldfinger,” plays her first important dramatic role as the television actress in “Life at the Top” and Michael Craig is sucsuccessful as the philandering friend. Donald Wolfit also stars as the woolens manufacturer who is Harvey’s domineering father-in-law. James Woolf produced “Life at the Top.” A Romulus production, the new drama was directed by Ted Kotcheff from a taut, exciting screenplay by Mordecai Richler. ‘Life at the Top’ Review Laurence Harvey, whose performance as the amoral young seeker after wealth and power in “Room at the Top” made him an internationally-famous screen figure, currently is discovering that “Life at the Top” is not all orchids and champagne; it also is hate and envy and infidelity. “Life at the Top,” naw—at~theae ee Theatre, is even more sensational a film than the earlier one. Also starred with Harvey are Jean Simmons as his restless, bored wife who betrays him with his best friend; Honor Blackman as a television actress whose attitude towards life is as ruthless as Harvey’s; Michael Craig, as Harvey’s best friend and his wife’s lover; and Donald Wolfit, as the wool manufacturer into whose family Harvey has wed. “Life at the Top” is a dramatic new Royal Films International release. Based on the novel by John Braine, “Life at the Top” presents a vividly real look at the hungers of human beings for success, excitement, love. It shows them brawling, crawling, Nightgowned In “Life at the Top,’ new Romulus production at the .... Theatre, Jean Simmons wears some half a dozen nightgowns in her scenes with co-stars Laurence Harvey and Michael Craig, who play her husband and her lover respectively. The nightgowns are appropriate to the character she portrays, that of a wealthy wife and mother bored by her husband and her marriage, and they also are appropriate to the scene .. . usually, a bedroom. Based on the John Braine novel, “Life at the Top” reportedly is even more sensational than “Room at the Top,” the Braine novel which, when filmed some nine-ten years ago, catapulted Harvey to international stardom. Then, he played a social-climbing office clerk determined to reach the heights; now, he is seen as a “success,” with a wife who is unfaithful. “Life at the Top” marks Miss Simmons’ first important escape from what she calls her earlier ‘sweetiepie” roles, and she reportedly makes the best (or worst!) of her role as a woman with adult emotions and desires. Honor Blackman and Donald Wolfit also star in “Life at the Top,” a Romulus production directed by Ted Kotcheff. Page 8 loving without shame and hating without pity ... all in their desperate efforts to escape the lives they have made for themselves. They want more than others are prepared to give, more than they already have, more than they deserve. And they unwilling and unhappily compromise, each other and with each other. The stars, and their behindcamera associates, make “Life at the Top” an intense, absorbing study of emotional conflict. The players are, in their fashion, brilliantly depicted and their infidelities, their iniquities and their chicaneries may thus be accepted and enjoyed. “Life at the Top” is indeed first rate motion picture entertainment, superbly brought to the screen by talented movie-makers. James Woolf produced the new film, which was directed by Ted Kotcheff. A Romulus production, “Life at the Top” is based on an incisive screenplay by Mordecai Richler which captures to the full the powerful impact of the new best-selling novel by John Braine. Best-Seller ee “Life at the Top,” now at the ah eA Theatre with Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit, is based on the best-selling novel by John Braine, who also wrote “Room at the Top.” It was in the latter film that Harvey won world fame as an office clerk determined to push his way into the upper brackets now, “Room at the Top” presents him ten years after his marriage for money, with Miss Simmons as his unfaithful wife and Miss Blackman as the girl to whom he turns for assurance. “Life at the Top” is a dramatic new Royal Films International release. Braine has frequently been accused of packing too much sex into his stories, but he has a stock answer for complaints: “Open the book and show me. You won’t be able to find it because you put it in yourself. If anything, I conceive of myself as a romantic. On the other hand, I hope I’ve made it perfectly plain what’s been happening to whom.’ The screenplay based on the new Braine novel was written by Mordecai Richler, and Ted Kotcheff directed the Romulus film production and James Woolf served as producer. (Mat IA; Still No. I11) Laurence Harvey is starred with Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit in "Life at the Top," new Royal Films International release based on the John Braine novel. Honor’s Judo When filming began on Honor Blackman’s scenes for “Life at the Top,” now also starring Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons and Michael Craig at the ...... Theatre, a photo agency called the studios and inquired: “What date does Honor Blackman do her judo scenes in the picture?” The well-endowed blonde, who won international screen fame in “Goldfinger,” finds herself remembered mainly for the belting she gave James Bond. And, before that, it was a British television series, “The Avengers,” which started Honor’s two-fisted adventures, she was dressed in a_ skin-tight leather jump suit, and she battled all comers, regardless of size, just so long as they were villains. Honor’s new picture, based on a novel by the author of “Room at the Top,” offers the beauteous judo expert her first important screen opportunity to demonstrate her ability as an actress. “Life at the Top” is a Royal Films International release. One of the several steamier love scenes in the picture called for Miss Blackman, as_ the “other woman,” to lure Harvey away from his wife, Jean Simmons. One long day’s filming required Honor and Harvey to enact a love scene on a bed several times, so as to guarantee the scene would pass differing standards of censorship in the various countries the picture is shown. This, she says gratefully, is about the only “wrestling” she does in “Life at the Top.” The coming publication of Honor Blackman’s “Book of Self-Defense,” will do nothing to discourage her reputation as an expert. Oddly enough, both Harvey and Craig also are experts in the fine art of self-defense. Both used to box extensively. Harvey trained for years at a gymnasium used by such men as Max Baer, Henry Armstrong, Marcel Cerdan and Primo Carnera, concentrating on body conditioning and movement but boxing steadily with professional fighters. Craig also was a regular in training; and he fought at sailor’s clubs in different ports around the world while he was in the merchant marine. Robert Morley As a ruthless woolen goods manufacturer in “Life at the Lops; wate-the Theatre, Robert Morley gives a_ vivid demonstration of epic expenseaccount eating in London’s swankiest dining room, at the Savoy Hotel. Starred in “Life at the Top,” based on the sensational John Braine novel, are Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit. The Romulus production is a Royal Films International release. Laurence Harvey Living “at the top,” like Laurence Harvey, takes money... and something extra. The 36-year-old star of “Life at the Top,’ new romantic drama -ateevne eres = Theatre, with Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit also starred, seems to possess some innate special grace which marks him as an expert in the art of living. Harvey lives in style. The Harvey trademark, a certain elegance of thought and action, has been his own special study for years. From it he has formulated a guiding principle: “T live in the present, learning from the past to cope with the future.” There is a corollary principle: “Money is not important, only the things money can buy.” Harvey claims to believe “the economy will collapse if I don’t spend my money as fast as I make it. I walk around with holes in my pockets and red ink in my bank account.” He demands both quality and value, and he proudly says he owned a Rolls Royce before he could even afford to eat. Born in Lithuania to poor parents who emigrated with him to South Africa, Harvey does not forget who he really is and where he comes from. Following “Room, at the Top,” which catapulted him to international screen fame, Hollywood immediately began clamoring for his services. Harvey starred in “The Alamo” with John Wayne; “Butterfield 8” with Elizabeth Taylor; “A Walk on the Wild Side” with Jane Fonda; “Summer and Smoke” with Geraldine Page; “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm;” “The Manchurian Candidate’ with Frank Sinatra; “The Running Man” with Lee Remick and “Of Human Bondage” with Kim Novak. Recently, he was seen in “Outrage,’ a Western version of “Rashomon,” with Paul Newman and Claire Bloom, and in “Darling” with Dirk Bogarde and Julie Christie. “Life at the Top” is a Royal Films International release. Advance Notice “Life at the Top,” with Laurence Harvey as the ruthless social climber and Jean Simmons as his faithless wife, opens ee at the Theatre. Honor Blackman and Michael Craig appear in the Royal Films International release, a Romulus production, as their respective lovers, and Donald Wolfit also is starred. “Life at the Top” is based on the novel by John Braine, author of the equally sensational “Room at the Top,” in which Harvey first won film stardom. Ted Kotcheff directed from a screenplay by Mordecai Richler, and James Woolf produced the film. (Mat IC; Still No. 64) Laurence Harvey and Jean Simmons play faithless husband and wife in "Life at the Top," Royal Films International release also starring Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, and Donald Wolfit. (Mat 1B; Still No. 126) Jean Simmons stars in "Life at the Top," new Royal Films International release. Also starred are Laurence Harvey, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit. Jean Simmons Sass As a philandering wife who betrays her husband with his best friend, Jean Simmons is back on the Theatre screen in “Life at the Top,” after a five-year absence, and very pleased about it. “It’s a big break for me,” she says. “Simply gorgeous. Now [ don’t have to be a sweetiepie any more.” The new drama is a Royal Films International release. Miss Simmons was a “sweetiepie” throughout some 21 years of film-making which began When she was a teenager, and she came to regard it as a tiresome, however golden, run. So she retired, to concentrate on her private life as a wife and mother. Now, as Laurence Harvey’s wealthy, restless wife in “Life at the Top,” Miss Simmons not only lures away his friend, but she also works at luring her husband. Her wardrobe in the film includes a considerable number of nightgowns, and some of her scenes are appropriate to her costumes. One such scene calls for Jean to try to attract Harvey’s attention while he is preoccupied with a business report he is studying in bed. Based on John Braine’s_ follow-up novel to “Room at the Top,” the sequence called for Jean to stroke her nude body with perfume. Jean has come of age on the screen and she anticipates other frankly adult roles. If her work in “Life at the Top” offers any indication of the future, they most certainly will be forthcoming. Co-starring in “Life at the Top with Harvey and Jean Simmons are Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Dunald Wolfit. James Woolf produced and Ted Kotcheff directed the Romulus production from a screenplay by Mordecai Richler. The Savoy London’s ultra-swank Savoy Hotel is in some scenes of the aptly-titled “Life at the Top,” which stars Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig and Donald Wolfit at the Theatre. The Romulus production crew moved its own special brand of organized chaos into the dining room where the great French chef Escoffier once reigned. It was the first time the Savoy management allowed a camera unit into the hotel since 1936, when Robert Donat appeared there for the final banquet scenes of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” “Life at the Top” is based on the novel by John Braine, even more sensational than his earlier “Room at the Top.” James Woolf produced the film, which Ted Kotcheff directed.