Overlooked Movies: The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

In the dim days of long ago when I was a college student, a group of us would go to the movies at least once every weekend.  (It was a lot more fun than studying.)  We didn't much care what was showing.  We'd go to anything.  One movie we saw, and one that's stuck with me for many years, was The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

The movie's based on a play by William Inge, and it's set in a small Oklahoma town in the 1920s.  The subject matter wouldn't be at all surprising today, but in 1960, it was downright shocking: sexual repression, adultery, religious prejudice, adolescent longings, coming of age, marital troubles all mixed up in a big melodramatic stew.  It was great.  Well, very good, anyway.  

The cast is excellent from top to bottom. Robert Preston is a salesman whose job ends because of changing times.  He wasn't getting rich to start with, but now there's a real strain on the family because of his situation.  His daughter (Shirley Knight) is dating a Jew.  His son is having growing pains.  His wife (Dorothy McGuire) is distant and troubled.  The Other Woman (Angela Lansbury) is a big temptation.  And there's also one of my personal favorites, Eve Arden, who, I thought, stole the movie.  That might not be true, but it was my youthful impression.  

This is the kind of movie that might be looked down on now (and maybe even at the time) as "middlebrow," and maybe it is.  But it was quite effective (and affecting) when I saw it as a kid, and I suspect that might be true even now.

(I'm sorry I wasn't able to locate a trailer for the movie, but at least take a look below at the still shots that are shown during the playing of the theme song.  You'll get an idea of how attractive the cast is, if nothing else.)