Mike Vardy (director)
www.networkonair.com (studio)
Cert 15 (certificate)
87 min (length)
22 April 2013 (released)
07 May 2013
This hard-hitting and sometimes explicit film from 1973 offers a grittier treatment than its 1950’s predecessor. It follows the progress of Joe Lampton, an aggressively ambitious Northerner who must decide between self-respect and self-preservation.
After years of hard work, Joe Lampton (Kenneth Haigh) finally is on the way up, trading his working class love for boxing with the perks his new job as the managing director of a powerful pharmaceutical company have to offer him: swilling champagne, and screwing beautiful women (in the trailer referred to as ‘birds’…). Indeed, even female hitchhikers are not entirely safe from Joe’s sexual prowess.
Two of his conquests include Alex (Nanette Newman), the glamorous and spoilt wife of Joe’s boss Lord Ackerman (Harry Andrews), and Robin (Mary Maude), their attractive daughter. If that’s not milking fate…
While at first enjoying (and using) his newly found status of wealth and influence, Joe learns of a professional negligence committed by the company, which left countless women infertile. Worse still, the company’s previous managing director committed suicide because of his involvement with the drug.
Confronting his boss, Lord Ackerman, with his knowledge of the facts, Joe is further irritated by Ackerman’s reaction to it all - which is that of little concern, and even less morale and scruples.
Slowly but surely, it dawns on him that this world of power and corruption might not be the right playground for him after all, further emphasized in a scene in which he is invited by his new rich friends to participate in a fox hunt. Clearly not comfortable with the cruel sport, Joe ends up being hunted himself. However, that’s his comeuppance for having pretended to help a female hunter who fell of horse, only to be seduced by him there and then.
In the end, we see a dressed-down Joe Lampton leaning over the railings of a high-rise tower, smiling and staring at a gritty looking skyline.
Man at the Top is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Full Frame 4:3, as-filmed version of main feature
• Music-only audio track
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
