Separate Tables
by Delbert Mann
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Burt Lancaster, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, Wendy HillerDirector: Delbert Mann
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-12-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Separate Tables
Movie Review: There are some very peculiar overtones in this film
Summary: 4 Stars
Some peculiar overtones in this film
I'll let you read about the plot in other reviews. Suffice it to say, although overtly this is a sweet film about lonely people finding each other, it has some decidedly peculiar overtones. It belongs to a type of drama popular in the mid 20th century, which I personally call "group therapy." A group of relatives or friends--in this case the inhabitants of a residence hotel--has a status quo which hides their most secret feelings, acts, and incidents in their pasts. A catalyst occurs--in this case the arrival of a stranger (to all the residents but her ex-husband). Everyone reveals their secrets (voluntarily or not), and then enters into tears, recriminations, accusations, etc. By the end of the drama there is a new status quo--one that is not guaranteed to solve any of the characters' problems, but which enables life to go on.
But the most peculiar aspect of this film is the assumption that males are so hormonally driven that women owe them sexual satisfaction. Before the drama begins, one man's wife's sexual denials have led him to assault and a stint in a mental hospital (plus she divorced him). Her "selfishness" in not wanting to spoil her figure by having children (she is a successful fashion model) is castigated, and she has to show up at the hotel and repeatedly plead to resume their relationship, and this time, she has to agree to . . . well, you know. Early in the drama, another man's lack of a partner leads him to grope strangers in a movie theatre, which in turn lands him in jail. He is rewarded with a shy, younger, more upper-class woman he's always liked, but never had the courage to approach.
And sexual satisfaction is not all the film says males are entitled to--they're entitled to children, too. Another couple consists of a medical student who is perpetually exhausted by his incessant study of anatomy either in books, or on the girlfriend who keeps dragging him into bed. But that's not enough for him; he proposes marriage a couple of times a day. The girlfriend loves him, but is not sure she wants to be tied down by marriage. At the end _she_ has to agree to marry him and furthermore, have numerous children.
Meanwhile, a very nice woman (much nicer than the ex-wife) who is engaged to the first man, is completely left out in the cold when his ex-wife shows up. She wants him, but the ex-wife is much more beautiful and desirable, so she has to be generous and gracious. The filmmakers certainly aren't worried about the urges of any _females_ landing them in a mental hospital or jail.
Summary of Separate Tables
Terence Rattigan's pair of one-act plays are deftly woven together into this intelligent, handsome drama, a kind of somber Grand Hotel of lonely and repressed lives at a British seaside hotel in the dreary off-season. David Niven and Wendy Hiller earned well-deserved Oscars for their subdued turns, as a blustery old warhorse hiding a guilty secret and the efficient hotel proprietress, respectively. Burt Lancaster is the alcoholic American whose secret affair with Hiller is complicated when his former wife (Rita Hayworth) breezes in and reopens old emotional wounds, and Deborah Kerr is a mousy woman whose secret love for Niven is shattered by scandal. Director Daniel Mann (Marty) remains true to the good manners and quiet desperation that keeps these sad souls isolated at separate tables. He gracefully floats between the two dramas and patiently allows his repressed characters to open up and reveal their true feelings in their own quiet fashion. --Sean AxmakerDrama DVD Video
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