Recommended . . .

Room at the Top (at the Kenmore). Perhaps the best British film since Guinness and Hawkins teamed up in The Prisoner, this is a deeply penetrating and significant study of English sex and society, with some of the frankest dialogue ever to come across the screen. Won award for "best performance by an actress" (Simone Signoret) at Cannes; named "best picture of the year, 1959" by the British Film Academy.

Samurai (at the Telepix). A superior Far Eastern "Western," recounting the life of the legendary Japanese warrior Musashi, powerfully portrayed by Toshiro (Rashomon) Mifune. Handsomely color-photographed, this won an Academy Award as "best foreign film." For those whose Japanese is shaky, there are excellent English subtitles.

South Pacific (at the University Theatre). Despite the ill-advised intermittent use of color filters, there still remains the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein show, one of the glorious monuments of our cultural heritage. France Nuyen is a delight as the object of John Kerr's love.

The Last Bridge (at the Brattle, Sunday through Tuesday). Maria Schell in another of her extraordinarily moving screen portrayals--a beautiful love story told against the background of European battle.

I Was Monty's Double (at the Exeter). A witty script in which Clifton James, playing three roles, re-enacts the true and magnificent hoax that the British played on the German high command in World War II.