The Man Upstairs

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source: The Man Upstairs

Moviecut—The Man Upstairs

The Man Upstairs

I used to play Edward Evans (Fire Brigade Officer) at table tennis.

I didn't know of this movie until I saw it availvable on download. What a gem. Tense drama, taut acting by big names of the time, and irnoically enough, despite being made in 1958, resonant of the 21st Century. Accusations made before proof? Paparazzi? Sounds like Social Media to me. Nuff Said. The Nuff is deliberate, I hate misspelling of words. Imagine my hireing someone to work for me, and the contract says 1000 per hour. Then the mistake is seen, and should read 10.00 per hour?????????? Nuff said.

Attenborough is pretty good, but he can't save this as a film. Some of the other acting is ok - but some is dreadful, especially Donald Houston (does he ever do anything except overact? I never understood why he was in so many films) - and several of the characters are pure clichéd stereotypes. The script is wooden and stilted, presumably because of its stage-play origins, and the action is a sequence of simply implausible events, largely engineered to get all the main characters together in one room and sounding off at each other. Corny, with little credibility.

Although Dickie Attenborough was appearing in some bold projects like this one, I didn't find any substance to it. I was disappointed with this film. It just dragged on wasting 90 minutes of my life. He needed to make his own films by this stage.

The Man Upstairs is too limited and dull, with class actor Attenborough reduced to playing a 6 year old having a tantrum. Granted it's more about the other residents choosing to weigh in and not just be bystanders. The problem is the majority of the residents are bad characters as well, Mrs Barnes the antithesis.

I don't think its any coincidence that this film came out the year after 12 Angry Men. Dicky Attenborough is the accused and the 12-man jury is made up of his fellow tenants. Good film but would have made a better TV episode - tighter and more focused.