The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (film)

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1960 American drama film. Academy Award winner Delbert Mann directed the work of Robert Preston and Dorothy McGuire in the production. Shirley Knight garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Lee Kinsolving was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actor. Knight was also nominated for two Golden Globes. Mann's direction was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film. It was based on the Tony Award-nominated 1957 play of the same name by William Inge.
Plot.
During Prohibition in Oklahoma, Rubin Flood is a successful harness and saddle salesman. However, with the advent of the automobile, his job is becoming more difficult. He is married to Cora, someone he considers a demanding wife and over-protective mother. When he learns his company is closing, he is unable to face his wife, and stops at a pharmacy to partake of "medicinal" alcohol. Cora is out with her daughter Reenie, buying a dress for a birthday party of one of her classmates.
Rubin cannot bring himself to tell Cora he has lost his job, arguing about how much Cora has spent on Reenie's dress, with Cora's lamenting that she always has to watch every penny. The couple's younger son Sonny is being bullied at school. Sonny has a fear of the dark. Determined to get him to stand up for himself, Rubin attempts to teach him to box. While sparring, he inadvertently strikes the boy too hard. Cora, now incensed, tears into Rubin, eventually accusing him of having an affair with Mavis Pruitt, a local widow. A livid Rubin slaps Cora, then storms out of the house. Reenie witnesses her parents' dispute. She runs into the street, causing a motorist to swerve and strike a tree. The driver, Sammy Golden, is relatively unhurt, and he and Reenie become attracted to one another.
Cora calls her older sister Lottie to tell her that Rubin hit her. Rubin, still slightly intoxicated, shows up at Mavis's beauty salon, which also is where she lives. He is seen going in by two town gossips. Rubin tells her Cora has ignored him for years, and while he has remained faithful, he desires Mavis. When she doesn't accept his halfhearted advances, Rubin falls asleep on her parlor sofa.
Days later, Lottie and her husband are there for dinner. Cora asks Lottie if she and the kids can come stay with her. Just as she asks, Rubin returns home to apologize. The two gossips call Cora to tell her, which re-ignites the argument. He accuses Cora of rejecting him sexually, and she argues that she cannot be in the mood when she spends her days worrying about money. Reenie's friend Flirt and her boyfriend arrive, with a date for Reenie, Sammy. Lottie's bigotry is revealed when she suggests that Cora and Rubin might not want to allow Reenie to accompany a Jew to the party.
Sammy and Reenie kiss at the party, but Harry Ralston and his wife walk in on them, berating her for bringing a Jew to the country club, where they are not allowed. Embarrassed, Sammy and Reenie leave. Sammy bemoans the bigotry in the world, and drops Reenie at home, where she finds Rubin on the sofa. He confesses that he has lost his job and does not know how to tell Cora. The following morning, they learn Sammy has attempted suicide. Reenie rushes to the hospital, telling him that she does not care what people think.
Cora promises Sonny to stop being so over-protective so he can grow into a responsible adult, then receives a call letting her know that Sammy has died. Cora heads over to Mavis's salon. She pretends to be a customer, before revealing she is Rubin's wife. Mavis confesses that she has been in love with Rubin for years, but that Rubin has always been faithful to Cora. She also reveals that Rubin has lost his job.
Rubin lands a new job as a salesman at an oil drilling equipment company. He returns home to find Cora waiting for him. She has sent Reenie to Lottie's for a few days to help her come to grips with Sammy's death. Cora and Rubin declare their love for one another and a commitment to paying more attention to each other's needs. As they embrace, Sonny returns home with a friend, one of his former tormentors from school. Rubin pays for the two boys to go see a movie, After they leave, he follows his wife up to the bedroom.
Production.
Warner Brothers announced in January 1960 that it would be producing a film version of Inge's play, directed by Delbert Mann, and starring Robert Preston and Dorothy McGuire. During rehearsals for the production, Mann used the same process he had used since his first film, "Marty", in 1955. First, the cast read through the entire script, then they rehearsed the entire screenplay on set prior to the commencement of filming. The film went into production in late January. By the beginning of March an actor's strike was looming, scheduled for March 7. Warner Brothers began going to seven days a week production schedules, in order to complete filming before the strike. In mid-July, it was announced that "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" would headline the launch of the fall season, opening at Radio City Music Hall after Labor Day. The film opened on September 22, 1960 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Reception.
"Variety" gave the film a favorable review, noting that it was "well cast and persuasively acted". However, Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" did not give the film a favorable review, calling it a "flawed adaptation of the original stage play". The "Film Bulletin" gave the film a good review, if they did find it uneven, calling it a "rather absorbing drama, with goodly shares of humor, warmth, and tragedy". They felt that Preston's performance was fine, but would have been better if he had brought more "humility and tenderness" to the role. They found McGuire's performance "splendid", and thought Mann's direction was professional, but that he focused on "certain scenes singularly, rather than integrating them into the whole". "Motion Picture Daily" gave the film another good review, although they were not kind to Mann's direction, finding it to be the weakness in the picture, saying that he "failed to draw out some of the most vital scenes all the urgency and pathos that Inge had wrote into them". They praised the work of Harriett Frank and Irving Ravetch in their adaptation of Inge's play to the screen, and felt the acting was exceptional. They called Preston's work "excellent", and McGuire "warm and appealing"; they felt the rest of the cast was well-done, and singled out Lansbury's performance as outstanding. The one sour note in the acting corps, the felt, was Arden's performance as the aunt, which they felt worked during the comedic sections, but was "out of key" during the dramatic moments.
Shirley Knight earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Reenie Flood. Knight also received two Golden Globe nominations for her performance: for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and New Star Of The Year - Actress. Lee Kinsolving also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Sammy Goldenbaum". Mann's direction was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for "outstanding directorial achievement". The film was voted one of the by the National Board of Review. Eve Arden's performance rated among the five best of the year by supporting actresses, according to "The Film Daily"'s poll of over 1800 critics.