Customer Reviews

Separate Tables [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Separate Tables was released, the agents of Deborah Kerr and Rita Hayworth fought for top billing in the opening credits. It's easy to understand after viewing this powerful film. Separate Tables is a great study in human nature and relationships among people who are far from faultless.

Burt Lancaster displays both intense anger and hopeless longing as his former wife Rita Hayworth comes back into his life. David Niven (who won an Oscar for this role) is superb as the military man with a past. Watch Niven as he is confronted with the truth about himself and how he interacts with his friends and those who once were his friends. The strength of the film is in its casting. In the hands of lesser actors, the film would turn into a very sappy melodrama. I am anxious to view the film again just to catch all the subtle facial expressions that these wonderful actors use to make their characters even more believable. A great ensemble, a great film.

Produced in 1958 by Harold Hecht and directed by Delbert Mann, Separate Tables takes place at the tiny Beauregard Hotel, a seaside resort on England's south coast, which serves in the winter as "a refuge for the lonely, resigned, and desperate." The main feature of the hotel is its separate tables, rather than "family style" dining, for the guests. The cast is a who's who of fifties stars--David Niven (who won an Oscar for his role), Deborah Kerr, Bert Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, and Wendy Hiller (who also won an Oscar)--all playing characters who live as separated from the world as their tables are in the dining room.

The Major (Niven) sets the action in motion when he is reported in the local newspaper as having been guilty of "insulting behavior" in a movie theater, and his war record is published. Niven is worshipped from afar by Sybil Railton-Bell (Kerr), a pathetically neurotic woman, subject to hysteria, who is totally controlled by her demanding mother. John Malcolm (Lancaster), was once married to former model Ann Shankland (Hayworth), who has suddenly come to visit him at the hotel, possibly to rekindle their flame, but he is already secretly engaged to Pat Cooper (Hiller), the manager of the hotel. A variety of eccentric subordinate characters add color, and occasionally humor, to the action. These isolated characters soon begin to find their lives intersecting and overlapping, and they eventually come to a poignant reckoning in the hotel dining room, as everyone arrives at his/her separate table.

The cinematography (Charles Lang) and music (David Raksin), both nominated for Academy Awards, provide subtle emphasis for the character dramas going on in the hotel, rather than calling attention to themselves. Character dramas were less common in the plot-driven 1950s than they are today, and these characters will now be seen as stereotypes by today's audience, and their actions predictable. Sybil (Kerr) seems particularly unrealistic now, her constant refrain of "Yes, Mummy," an insistent reminder of how times have changed. Lancaster seems a bit out of his element as a character actor, and Hayworth, in her buttoned up blouse, seems a bit uncertain about how to handle such a subtle role. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful study of actors and acting from the 1950s, and the writing (by Terence Rattigan and John Gay), direction, and cinematography, which showcase the cast, are superb. A classic film. Mary Whipple

This is a superb film that stars Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Burt Lancaster as guests staying at an English seaside resort named Beauregard Hotel. Each of the guests contends with different problems and complications, but the one thing in common is their loneliness. Rita Hayworth is a woman whose vanity hides her fear of growing old alone. She tries to make another go of her marriage to an alcoholic writer named John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster). John however is in love with Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller) the hotel's manager. Deborah Kerr is Sibyl Railton-Bell, a shy spinster who is dominated by her mother (Gladys Cooper). Sibyl has feelings for Major Pollack (David Niven) a supposed war hero that hides a dark secret. This is a very captivating film with excellent performances and good dialogue. Also starring are Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer and Rod Taylor. This is a very complex and mature film that deserves multiple viewings. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This movie is a sensitive and refined treatment of the subject of Loneliness. The 'separate tables' are located in a small English resort hotel. The main characters live in their own little worlds, and their efforts at communicating with each other falter and fail. Most memorable is the character played by Burt Lancaster a formerly successful somewhat discredited writer who is engaged to the hotel's owner ( Wendy Hiller) but is troubled at the appearance at the hotel of his former wife( Played by Rita Hayworth)
There is a certain quietness and edgy bleakness in the movie.
It is an impression of life winding down in sadness, tastefully, politely, but nonetheless in loneliness and despair.

The production team of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster made film history by winning the first ever Best Picture Oscar by an independent with an offbeat film, "Marty", in which Ernest Borgnine secured a Best Actor statuette. Some three years later the group with a penchant for strong but highly unconventional stories scored again with "Separate Tables."

Set in a boarding house in a British seaside resort, "Separate Tables" appraises the lives of people who often are seeking to escape from the real world, as well as those who attempt to oversee and manipulate others. Two of the chief characters in the film fall into those distinct categories, David Niven, who won a Best Actor Oscar as a man who has manufactured a glittering military career and harbors a tragic secret, and stellar British character performer Gladys Cooper, a meddlesome presence who unearths that secret and seeks to have Niven evicted from the premises. The chief reason for her determined venom is that Deborah Kerr, her tortured daughter who suffers from her suffocating domination, is attracted to Niven.

The drama also has a fascinating romantic triangle as an indigeouns element of its plot. Co-producer Burt Lancaster plays an American writer with a tragic past who seeks to bury it in alcohol, spending the greater part of his time at a nearby pub. His romance with the establishment's proprietor, Wendy Hiller, who secured a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her brilliant effort, is suddenly threatened with the arrival of a guest. Rita Hayworth, wife of co-producer James Hill at the time, is from a more socially upscale society and appears out of place at the decidedly middle class boarding house. She is a glamorous internationally renowned model. Though she attempts to deny it, Hayworth is there to rekindle her old romance to former husband Lancaster, who in a fit of rage once attempted to kill her, doing prison time for his attempt. We also learn that Hayworth's life has diminished from its earlier aristocratic pedestal.

The film was a melding of two Terence Rattigan one act plays, which he adapted to the screen with John Gay. Delbert Mann directs with steadiness, allowing the drama to flourish without anyone going over the edge. The sparks are there, but never in incredulous suberabundance. The final mystery which is brilliantly unraveled is whether Gladys Cooper will prevail in getting Niven to leave the establishment after it is learned that he has been involved in a local scandal at a cinema. The resolution is deftly handled, dramatic without histrionics, which was the hallmark of the entire cinema gem. Deborah Kerr's future also hangs in the balance with her ultimate decision.

Excellent drama set in a seaside hotel which acts as a cruicible and window onto the human conflicts and frailties which lay beneath the surface of everday human lives. The movie excells in it's realism and depicition of integral human traits of love, jelousy, vanity and evil. Emotions and flaws which are as vivid and alive not only in wars, revolutions and mass upheavals, but also in the intertwining lives of all of us, including the inhabitants of this seemingly tranquil boarding house. Highly recommended. One of Burt Lancaster's best films.

For lovers of this movie, keep an eye out for the alternate print, available only in the long-out-of-print 1987 CBS/FOX issue. This version of the film has a different main title, with Rita Hayworth getting top billing, plus a new prologue at the end of the main title, before the film starts.

Misandry, misanthropy, misogyny, even myopia. No wonder there are so many misunderstandings. Bring to a slow boil in the Beauregard Hotel; stir in a narcissistic ex-wife and you have the makings for some delightful scandal casserole despite dining room SEPARATE TABLES.

Residents of the Beauregard frequently engage in causerie and are often pretty good at summating actual facts. Everybody has issues. No one is particularly interested in making them public. However, after the newspaper gets wind of the secret life of one hotel resident, it's time to grill and fry him. As others' private faults surface, the motive for ostracizing the one whose demerit is most public must be reevaluated.

Some of the dialogue requires a bit of patience to allow characters to develop all their issues. David Niven received an Academy Award for his portrayal of a deviant misanthropist masquerading as decorated Major Pollack. Beautiful Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth) depicts the subtleties of narcissism. John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster) embodies a fervent misogynist. Sibyl Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) is an introverted neurotic dependant secretly sharing the misanthropy of Major Pollack. Throw in a myopic domineering matriarchal misandrist and a clandestine May-December romance for a 99-minute advanced lesson in psychiatry. SEPARATE TABLES boldly and shamelessly addresses the numerous imperfections of others and demonstrates the value of tolerance, understanding, and discipline.

Movie quote: "The very sight of you is perhaps the one thing about you I don't hate."

A great film with perfect casting. The sound track was beautiful and particularly wonderful when Rita Hayworth is introduced to the viewer. The story is unique and has such a good message: The hateful mother is a warning to those who never see the plank in their own eye but see the splinter in their neighbor's. It was good to see that the majority of the characters were able to forgive the sins and bad choices the main character had made in his life. A truly fine film.

What a splendid story filmed with a beautiful cast doing their best work.

This film can be seen many times for enjoyment and a chance to get away from today's horrible events. It shows once again that people often display kindness when an attack is made on a wounded person. It also depicts various relationships in this small hotel by the sea.