THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS

US, 1960, 123 minutes, Colour.
Robert Preston, Dorothy McGuire?, Angela Lansbury, Eve Arden, Shirley Knight.
Directed by Delbert Mann.

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is based on a play by William Inge (who wrote, amongst other successful plays, Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop). It may not make as much impact now as it did on its first release. Frank cinema we now take for granted. However, this may be to the film's advantage. It tackles human problems seriously but without the heavy-handedness of more contemporary films.

The film also has impressive performances from respected actors like Robert Preston, Dorothy McGuire?, Angela Lansbury and Eve Arden who guarantee the authenticity of so many of the emotional tangles the characters get into. A young Shirley Knight plays the teenage daughter of the film.

However, one of the most important features of the film is its dialogue. It very often rings painfully true and makes the film rather harrowing at times. The sequence with Eve Arden is particularly good here.

Perhaps the film tackles too many problems of the family - marriage, careers, success, failure, growing up, racial prejudice, suicide etc. But it does make an impression and is well worth discussing.

1. The meaning of the title especially in the sequence where the mother arid her son were explaining this phrase?

2. The structure of the film - was it evident that it was derived from a play? How was the atmosphere of the film created - beginning and ending in the bedroom, the love of husband and wife, but with all the sorrow between?

3. How important were the themes of love and bitterness?

4. Reuben - as a man, father, his work, his loss of work, his need to adapt to changes, his relationship with his wife, his love for her and yet Ms exasperation with her, his reliance on Mavis Pruitt, his love for his children and yet his bullying of his children, his standing in the town -his friends, jokes at the hotel, his application for jobs, e.g. at the farm, how much did you sympathise with hint? How 'good' a man was he? How typical of the average man was he? Therefore, the insights into his life, how much were these insights into the ordinary man?

5. His wife - as a woman, as a wife, her good qualities, her motherliness, her faults; her preoccupation with money, her nagging, worrying, her ambitions for Reuben and her children, her emotional response to sorrow, her relying on her sister, the insights she gained from talking with Mavis? How typical of ordinary women was she? Were the insights into her character and her way of seeing and doing things an insight into the ordinary woman?

6. Mavis - as a person, as an ordinary woman, as sympathetic, as a help for Reuben, as respecting and not destroying him? As a victim of gossip? Her generosity and self-sacrifice towards Reuben's wife, her encouragement of her? HOW good a woman was Mavis?

7. Rene - as a typical young shy girl, her ignorance, her innocence, the influence of her parents in her growing up? The new dress and her parents reaction to it, her nervousness at her parents quarrelling? Her encounters with the Jewish boy - a true friendship, a contrast to her rich friends? Her first dance, the kiss, the humiliation? Her attempt to help the boy - her learning of his bitterness, her understanding of other people? The impact of the accident, her visit to the hospital, the impact on her of his death? flow would all this have changed her?

8. The son - why so shy, soft? The influence of his mother instead of his father? His fighting with the boy and gaining a friend? How did he change during the film?

9. The sister - as a humorous character? As a caricature? What was wrong with her? How annoying was she? How did the humour of Reuben and the taunts at her make the audience laugh at her? How did the audience change when she and her sister talked upstairs? How much pathos was there in this sequence? Was she a typical, ordinary human being?

10. Her husband, Maurice - as weak and ineffectual, unhappy, did he love his wife? His reaction to her incessant talking - and yet the revelation of the truth about their marriage? Maurice and his response to Rene and the other members of the family?

11. The Jewish boy - from Hollywood and trying to prove himself against his mother? As having a chip on his shoulder? Why was he so bitter and ironic? The ultimate effect of the humiliation at the dance? Was it credible that he was driven to suicide? The impact of the anti-Semitism shown by the characters?

12. Were you satisfied with the film's ending?

13. How much insight into humanity was there in this film? Into the nature of love and marriage? Into the family? Into the difficulties of relating, the need for patience, understanding? The readiness of people to dislike people they love without thinking?

14. How valuable a film would this be for family viewing and discussing?