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THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli

SCREENWRITER: John Patrick, Arthur Sheekman

FILM STARS: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy, Nancy Gates, Leora Dana, Betty Lou Keim, Larry Gates, Connie Gilchrist

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: James Jones

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Panther

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: An epic multicharacter domestic drama. I found both the film and the novel fascinating. The (slightly) autobiographical story is about a World War 2 veteran with continuing literary aspirations who returns in 1948 to his hometown in the Midwest after a failed writing career . It follows him and the people he hangs out with. The film captures the post war disillusionment, the lack of direction, the (50s style) questioning on “what’s it all about”. The four leads in the film are perfect. It’s great to see Sinatra and Martin in something other than their (admittedly wonderful) jokey normal on screen roles. Though, that’s not to say there isn’t humour here, especially with Martin’s character. People say Sinatra and Martin play themselves. If they do I don’t care, because they have enough of themselves in the characters as written to make it convincing..  Director Minnelli makes the most of the Cinemascope …  you have to love dramas done in Cinemascope.

The main different between novel and film is the novel is more frank with the sex and sex talk but the film does enough for you to put it all together. Well, also (major spoiler coming), the central character is killed in the book but not in the film. (for the same dramatic punch the film has the central female character killed) . The title comes from a bible quote, Mark 10:17, King James Version: “And when He was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” And, yes this edition is not quite a “tie-in” though that is Frank and Shirley from the film on the front, so, close enough.

LINKS

PAGES

TRAILER

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Jack Clayton

SCREENWRITER: Neil Paterson

FILM STARS: Simone Signoret, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Hermione Baddeley

COUNTRY: Great Britain

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: John Brain

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: A great novel by English novelist John Braine. Braine is one of the “angry young men” group of English writers from the late 50s. who emerged on the literary scene in the late 1950s. Those novels were a mix of disillusionment, cynicism or observation on working class life, lower middle class with characters trying to punch their ways out of their surrounds, looking for a (or for “some”) “room at the top”. The English trend seemed to replicate the matter of fact or cynical, disillusionment novels of the early to mid-5os in the US (the “slice of life” and “the rat race” novels and plays by Sloan Wilson,  Paddy Chayefsky and others). Both trends on either side of the Atlantic also created similar trends in film (and in television in the US). The main difference is that the British novels and films were observant of the rigid, and more obvious, English class structures. “Room at the Top” was followed by a sequel in both novel and film, “Life at the Top”, and a TV series “Man at the Top” in 1970.

This film stars one of my favourite English actors, Laurence Harvey or Zvi Mosheh Skikne as I like to call him. A Lithuanian-born Jew who grew up in South Africa and who had to punch (or sleep?) his way to the top. The film is one of the best English “kitchen sink drama” 9realist) films of the late 50s / early 60s.  The story is now, and perhaps was even then, familiar but by film standards of the time it is frank in its attitude to sex and its acknowledgement of regional culture is refreshing. It was a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic (it was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two … not bad for a small English film), and it made a big star out of Laurence Harvey.

LINKS

TRAILER

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: John Frankenheimer

SCREENWRITER: William Inge

FILM STARS: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury, Brandon deWilde, Constance Ford. Barbara Baxley, Evans Evans

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: James Leo Herlihy

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1960

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Domestic Drama

WORDS: I have not read the book by Herlihy (who also wrote “Midnight Cowboy” and “Blue Denim”).  The film I saw a while back and it’s a kitchen sink southern Peyton Place soap opera with some southern gothic thrown in. Beatty is perfect as the hedonist in the lead role. Screenwriter, William Inge won an Academy Award for his screenplay of “Splendor in the Grass” the year before, also with Beatty. He also wrote the plays Come Back, Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

LINKS

TRAILER

the Spanish Trailer which features more of the jazzy score by Alex North

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Peter Duffell

SCREENWRITER: Desmond Cory, Peter Duffell

FILM STARS: Peter Finch, Michael York, Hildegarde Neil, Joss Ackland, Michael Hordern, Tessa Wyatt

COUNTRY: Great Britain

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Graham Greene

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1974

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1935 (republished as “The Shipwrecked” in 1953)

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: Neither seen nor read though I can say that the book’s locale is changed from Stockholm, Sweden to Nazi Germany circa 1935, and the tone of the book is changed from dramatic, comic and satirical to melodramatic (apparently). I note some of the locations were filmed in my father’s neck of the woods, Opatija, Croatia (then Yugoslavia). That has nothing to do with the book.