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45 comments in total

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42 out of 47 people found the following comment useful :-
What a pity most of today's cinemagoers will never see this very moving film, 7 January 1999
Author: Alan Beal from Leeds, England

This is without doubt one of the best films I have ever seen. The fact that it all takes place in one small Bournemouth (England) hotel, no violence, no special effects, no thousands of extras, or vast expenditure says it all. Excellent performances from a star studded cast, especially David Niven. It is gripping from start to finish, but by modern standards in a gentle way. A movie possibly mainly for women, but as a man I can only say that I found it very moving. A film I will always watch whenever it comes around as it always will. A classic.

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40 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
This is David Niven's movie..., 5 December 2002
Author: Elizabeth (endofroad2@aol.com) from NY

David Niven, who was never given the credit he deserved for his enormous talent, gives the performance of his career in "Separate Tables." Instead of playing the perpetual nice guy, he is a definite shady character. He deceives everyone into believing that he's a reputable person, especially shy Deborah Kerr. But soon, it is revealed that he's not the person he appears to be, with possible disastrous outcomes...

Featuring a fantastic all-star cast, including Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, and Rod Taylor, "Separate Tables" seems to be a forgotten masterpiece. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress, and won two...including one for the magnificent David Niven. I highly recommend this movie!

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36 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
Fascinating character studies at a seaside hotel..., 16 May 2002
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

Deborah Kerr and David Niven give stunning performances in this interesting character study of residents of a British seaside hotel forced to examine their feelings and emotions through the revelation of a scandal involving a blustery phony Major Pollock (David Niven. His relationship with the repressed daughter (Deborah Kerr) of a domineering mother (Gladys Cooper) is just one of the interesting aspects of this filming of Terrence Rattigan's stage play.

Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster are excellent as ex-lovers forced to examine their pasts. Wendy Hill excels as the keeper of the hotel, herself involved in an affair with Lancaster. Rod Taylor and Audrey Dalton do well as the young lovers caught in the claustrophobic setting dominated by snooping elderly women.

A very worthwhile, sensitive study of people trying to spend quiet days at a resort--very disparate people leading separate lives who must cope with their differences.

Deborah Kerr gives a deeply felt, genuinely moving performance opposite Niven's blustery major and Cooper's exquisitely well-mannered but narrow-minded mother. Niven deserved his Oscar for his moments of quiet desperation and crumbling of character--but Kerr is equally fine and should have had Academy recognition for this role instead of just a nomination.

Wendy Hiller is especially impressive and surely deserved her Best Supporting Actress Oscar as the innkeeper who deals intelligently and sympathetically with the various crises facing her guests. She is a pleasure to watch as she struggles to keep her guests comfortable under trying circumstances.

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22 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
A Masterpiece Of Loneliness, 4 April 2005
Author: dencar_1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I make it a point to watch SEPARATE TABLES at least once a year. It is a masterpiece of an intimate portrait of lonely people who reside at an English seaside hotel and how their lives are crisscrossed by destructive cruelty when they pretend to be what they are not.

David Niven won the Acadamy Award--and rightfully so--for his portrayal of the lonely Major Pollack who embellishes his military past in an attempt to garner the adulation of the overly protected and withdrawn Sybil played superbly by Deborah Kerr. Gladys Cooper turns in a powerful performance as Sybil's mother, the hotel's matriarch and controlling force. Obsessed with stifling her daughter's independence, she refuses to allow Sybil any freedoms and snuffs out every one of her attempts to gain her own life. It is out of this twisted control that she poisons her daughter's respect and friendship with Pollack by attempting to destroy his reputation.

The romance between Burt Lancaster and ex-lover Rita Hayworth weaves through the story as an excellent subplot. When Hayworth, a glamorous but lonely cover girl, shows up unexpectedly to get Lancaster, the pair thrash out their past failed relationship. The only negatives are Rod Taylor and his fiancée who are pretty much an afterthought in the film and do little more than provide a scandalous intermission for the Niven--Cooper confrontation. And Wendy Hiller, The manager and owner of the hotel, towers as the one character who stands up to Cooper and her poisoning of Niven. When Lancaster passes her up for Hayworth, she accepts it with dignity and character.

It is, however, the final scene in which Niven enters the breakfast room after being shamed by Cooper's calumny that serves as the film's shimmering jewel. Kerr acknowledges Niven, the others follow suit and reocognize Pollack humanely, and you practically hear the audience applaud when Sybil stands up to her twisted mother. It is the supreme moment; for the characters have established a humane connection among "separate tables." What a powerful finale as the camera draws back through the breakfast room window, the theme song tugs at your heart, and the guests resume their lonely lives.

SEPARATE TABLES is a powerful drama and a fantastic study of the pain that springs from human alienation and distrust.

Dennis Caracciolo

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18 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Stitched Together Rather Nicely, 8 April 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

As presented in London and on Broadway Separate Tables was two one act plays set in a residential hotel in the seaside resort of Bournemouth. The stories involving Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth and the one involving David Niven and Deborah Kerr were presented separately. Fortunately producers Burt Lancaster, Harold Hecht, and James Hill had the good sense to hire Terrence Ratigan to stitch the two acts together into one well done coherent drama. Came out rather nicely.

Burt and Rita's story involve a former married couple who's volatile personalities make it impossible for them to live together and their sexual attraction makes it impossible for them to function without. Lancaster is a working class writer and Hayworth is a chic fashion model. Different temperaments and different worlds. Lancaster in fact is now engaged to Wendy Hiller, the proprietress of the hotel everyone is staying at.

Deborah Kerr is the shy and plain daughter of a domineering Gladys Cooper who is essentially playing the same role she did in Now Voyager. Kerr is attracted to the hale and hearty Major played by David Niven. But Niven is not all he claims to be. He's not a major from Montgomery's Eighth Army, but rather a former lowly supply lieutenant who never saw any combat. And he's got a sexual problem in that he likes to molest women in dark places like movie theaters. In fact he was arrested for it in a nearby town and is panic stricken that the rest of the residents will find out and see through him.

The Major is one of Terrence Rattigan's most personal creations. Rattigan was a gay man living in the pre-Stonewall era when such topics were not talked about. Noel Coward was about as explicit as one could get in British society. The Major was a man playing a role in his whole life and gay people before Stonewall did just that, presenting a facade to the world at large. If Separate Tables were written today, I've no doubt David Niven's character would be explicitly gay.

David Niven had one of the strangest careers in Hollywood. He was a man of acting ability this film certainly proves it. But producers always looked no farther than him as a debonair charming leading man. He carried a host of mediocre films by dint of charm. Separate Tables is one of the few films where he really does create a three dimensional human being.

David Niven was also one of the most popular individuals in Hollywood. As charming in real life as he was on the screen, he was a great raconteur with a host of stories that kept everyone at gatherings entertained. His friends included people of all political persuasions from Humphrey Bogart to William F. Buckley, Jr. That and the fact that Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier split the vote being both nominated for The Defiant Ones got David Niven the Best Actor Oscar in the only time he was ever nominated.

Ironically though the Oscar really did nothing for his career. He went right back to playing the same charming lightweight roles for the most part the rest of his life.

Wendy Hiller got an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category. Her's is a subtle understated performance. She's a wise and compassionate woman that Wendy. In love with Burt Lancaster she sees what her duty is in that relationship and she's ready to be a friend to David Niven when Gladys Cooper wants him expelled from the hotel.

What a pity Deborah Kerr never won an Oscar other than an honorary one in the Nineties as a lifetime achievement. Her role as Sybil is about as different from Anna Leonowens in The King and I as from the sluttish Mrs. Holmes in From Here to Eternity. Typecast as prim and proper ladies at first, a backup to Greer Garson at MGM, Kerr broke out with an astonishing range of parts in the Fifties. She never gets the credit due her.

Intelligent and literate, Separate Tables is old fashioned considering the times it was written in. But the characters absorb you in their problems and you leave it with the fervent wish that they all find some healing together or apart.

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16 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Intriguing and well-written drama, 11 April 2004

Author: FilmOtaku (ssampon@hotmail.com) from Milwaukee, WI

This film came highly recommended to me by my parents, so I was anxious to watch it. Again, I realized that my impression of Burt Lancaster is completely different from what he actually is as an actor. His portrayal of an alcoholic man who gets a visit from his ex-wife (Hayworth) at the hotel he resides is again different from the boisterous, oafish guy that I always believed him to be when I was younger. Also at the hotel are a varied group of characters – including an oppressive woman who lords over her timid spinster daughter (Kerr) and a retired Army officer with some secrets, (Niven) who are all taken care of by the distant, yet sincere proprietress, Pat Cooper (the amazing Wendy Hiller). The film encompasses all of their separate plot lines, and interweaves them gradually until the climatic ending. There was no action in this film, just wonderful, straight melodrama and some great writing and acting. A year later, Lancaster and Hecht, the producers behind this film, went on to produce `Sweet Smell of Success', which is infinitely more searing and dark, but it was interesting to see the precursor to that film. I recommend this film for anyone who appreciates solid classic melodramas.

--Shelly

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14 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
A Skillful Blending of Two One Act Plays, 9 April 2006

Author: theowinthrop from United States

I visited London in 1993, and saw a west end revival of Terrance Rattigan's "Separate Tables" that starred Peter Bowles. It was very odd watching Bowles, whom I have seen playing so many upper crust comic types as in "The Irish R.M." on television, here playing two serious parts: a recovering alcoholic who meets his ex-wife at a hotel he is staying at, and a bluff, good natured military man who disgraces himself - and is facing ostracism as a result - in the same hotel. But these were separate plays, and each well done. Rattigan was a master (possibly the last one) of the "well made play" that Shaw condemned as artificial and fake. The "well made play" Bernard Shaw talked about was the type championed by the French dramatists Planche and Victorien Sardou. Structurally they were perfect, with the concentration on plot mechanism so strong as to diminish everything else. Shaw felt the play should say something. He failed to admit that some of his own plays (among his early ones) like "Caesar And Cleopatra" and "Arms And The Man" were "well made plays", with his own wit added. He also failed to notice that in the hands of a good dramatist (like Rattigan) a well made play could be very strong: "The Winslow Boy", "The Browning Version", "Separate Tables" - the credits prove the point.

As has been pointed out in another of these reviews Rattigan rewrote the plays as one play. This was not too difficult, as the only character in the two who was the same was the hotel manager (Wendy Hiller). Her part was built up a little (in the original she is a close friend of the Burt Lancaster character - here they have a relationship). Frequently people recall David Niven's dramatic triumph and Oscar in "Separate Tables" as the disgraced military man, but Hiller won her best supporting Oscar here (she did not win it for her lead performances in "Pygmalion", "Major Barbara", or "I Know Where I'm Going"). She deserved it, as a woman who sadly sees her chance for happiness swept away, but pulls herself together because she is a grown-up with responsibilities.

Lancaster and Rita Hayworth were formerly married (he a rising Labor Party politician, she a wealthy woman) only to find the tensions of his political career and their tempestuous relationship led to an act of violence that ended the marriage. But Hayworth finds she can't live without Lancaster, and he is willing to consider it again - as their play continues. Will they do it or not?

Niven is a bluff, hail-fellow-well-met type, who claims he was a Major in the army. He happens to be very close to Deborah Kerr, the daughter of autocratic Gladys Cooper. Kerr is quite brow-beaten, but Niven encourages her to try to think for herself. Then it turns out he has committed a sin - he broke the law by performing a dirty act, and was caught. Cooper, who hates anyone who stands up against her, learns of it, and uses it to cause Kerr to break with Niven, and to then try to get the hotel to force him out. Will she succeed or not?

Niven played his role with a degree of regret and humiliation rarely seen by his fans in three decades of film comedies. I have mentioned that he had a dark side, but this was one of the few times it was given full strength. It was worth waiting for, as he was superb.

So too were Hayworth, Kerr, Cooper, and the supporting cast. Rod Taylor and Audrey Dalton were good as the young married couple. But typically good was old Felix Aylmer. As the mild mannered professor who is willing to listen to Cooper's arguments about the need to get rid of that "pervert" for the sake of the hotel's reputation, and then gradually gets fed up with her self-righteous egotism until he starts leading a reaction against it he gave a terrific performance. He too deserved some recognition, but only his fans can give it to him now.

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18 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
A film that grows on you., 2 July 2003
Author: Pennybear from California

Though Deborah Kerr and David Niven are often singled out for their performances, it's really the sensitive, restrained, and vulnerable performance by Rita Hayworth and her relationship with the intense Burt Lancaster that will make you want to come back to this film again and again.

Kerr is worlds away from her elegant performance in "An Affair to Remember." Her Sybil is dominated by her mother (excellently played by Gladys Cooper), repressed, plain, and rather odd. David Niven plays Major Pollock, a war-story windbag with some disturbing secrets. Niven won the best actor Oscar for his performance. However, on the second viewing of this film, his and Kerr's acting seemed showy and became a little irritating. I'm not so sure they stand the test of time.

The less shrill moments with Wendy Hiller (also excellent), Lancaster, and the lovely, involving Hayworth were a welcome respite. Hayworth, more than anyone else, will break your heart in this film. She makes you care about what happens with her character, Ann. Perhaps their roles weren't as tied to an era as Niven's and Kerr's, but Hiller's, Lancaster's, and Hayworth's acting styles certainly seem more natural and real.

Cathleen Nesbitt also turns in a warm and lovely performance as Lady Matheson.

I definitely recommend this movie!

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
If you like human nature you'll love this movie., 13 February 2007

Author: braggs123 from United States

I enjoyed this movie immensely. I went back and watched parts of it over because it was done so well.

The actors show the greatness and degradation of human nature under the duress of great personal obstacles and non-ideal circumstances.

Burt Lancaster is both bold and vulnerable, directly honest and compassionately understanding.

One person exhibits unsurpassed understanding with unselfish love. To me, this is a love story on many levels; manipulative love, selfish, lonely love, the love of people's opinion, love battling fear and finally... well, you need to watch it and see.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Do Check Into The Beauregard Hotel!, 4 December 2007

Author: ferbs54 from United States

"Separate Tables" (1958) is a movie that I'd been wanting to see for many years, and it was worth the wait. A "Grand Hotel"-type of story that takes place at a quaint English inn by the sea, it features any number of interesting characters, marvelously depicted by a host of great talents. Thus, we get a love triangle between Burt Lancaster, his ex-wife Rita Hayworth (40 years old in this film and still looking very pulchritudinous) and the charming hotel owner Wendy Hiller, who really did earn her Best Supporting Actress Oscar here. We meet the repressed mess of a spinster played by Deborah Kerr, as well as her impossibly overbearing mother (Gladys Cooper, doing here what she did to Bette Davis in 1942's "Now, Voyager"). We get to know retired Army major David Niven, and learn his dark secrets. (Niven, too, earned his Oscar for this fine portrayal; he also costarred with Kerr in another 1958 film, "Bonjour Tristesse.") And finally, we encounter a pair of young lovers, Rod Taylor and the yummy Audrey Dalton, who can't decide if they should marry or not. Many dramatic encounters abound (some of them sexually frank for 1958), and Hayworth's mature and adult performance might come as the pleasantest surprise of the bunch. Personally, I would say that big Burt picks the wrong gal to go off with at the film's conclusion, but I suppose that this is a matter of personal taste. The bottom line here is that this classic film is a wonderful treat for viewers who appreciate good screen writing and who relish deliciously served acting by a bunch of real pros. And this nice, crisp-looking DVD only adds to the pleasure. So do yourself a favor and check into the Beauregard Hotel!

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