Separate Tables
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Movie Reviews of Separate Tables
Movie Review: View from the Boarding House
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Very enjoyable old fashioned film
Summary: 5 Stars
Another reviewer named this type of film, popular in the 50's as "group therapy." I had to laugh at that because there is a certain amount of truth in it. A varied group assembles in a site and each one, with his/her own personality defect gradually interacts with the others and a certain transformation occurs, at least in the main players. Personally I love this format--find it much more satisfying than a lot of stuff that passes for art nowadays.
The setting is charming to modern eyes---a small, apparently modest residential hotel, located three minutes away from the sea in an unremarkable English town. These people all seem to be suffering from something yet they keep up appearances grandly, and the hotel supports their various illusions. It's a perfect place for secrets to be exposed as the folks encounter one another.
The cast is first rate. David Niven is lovely as a fellow whose hearty old-style British bravura hides a desperate secret. I'm usually bored by Niven but this performance is wonderfully done...especially the last scene. Deborah Kerr is probably miscast as the frightfully repressed woman of an indeterminate age who is dominated by her scarey mother. Kerr is too robust and healthy and naturally gorgeous to get away with portraying such an unfortunate person and her attempts at shy awkwardness border on charicature. Rita Hayworth is very good as the aging but still glamourous model whose unexpected shows of kindness endear her to the audience. Burt Lancaster is perfect as the failing writer turned alcoholic whose passion for Hayworth still flares up even after a terrible marriage. Wendy Hiller plays the competent, smart woman who runs the hotel and has fallen for Lancaster. All the others are well cast and played. The only characters who didn't seem to add anything were the young couple who were on the verge of marriage. Perhaps they were there to portray "normal" against whom the others played. I thought they could have been eliminated.
This could have been terrible in the hands of lesser artists, including the director. Fortunately it was so well done that a fine, sensitive, and satisfying film emerged. The attitudes are dated so perhaps younger viewers may have a problem appreciating it. Read the other reviews and make up your own mind.
Movie Review: My oh my! (recommended)
Summary: 5 Stars
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."
Movie Review: out of the madding crowd
Summary: 5 Stars
These separate tables and that discreet hotel I think are the equivalent to the abbeys of the Middle Age in Europe. In effect, not all people are strong enough to affront usual, daily life, with his defying , and some found by then a quiet way of life professing religion, believers or not, escaping of wars, abuses of the noblesse, etc. The lodgers of this film aren't religious, but excepting the writer played by Burt Lancaster the mundane personage of Rita Hayworth and the proprietary of the hotel, all others are people with a weak ego, unable for common life and some practically touching the tragedy, as the pathetic retired major who truly never fought, living of pure fantasy played by David Niven who has to find sex in dark cinema halls, and the poor girl represented by Deborah Kerr, annulated by her malignant castrating mother.This movie moves me as I think people as these are more common than Herculean, steel heroes as usual, and at last, in his way, they are heroes also.
Movie Review: Superb drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a movie which is a must-see for those of you who like a classic. It is one of Rita Hayworth's best movies, and it was made two years before she contracted Alzheimer's Disease. Deborah Kerr is truly her character and doesn't appear as Deborah Kerr. She utilizes her craft and makes a convincing character. David Niven puts on a very fine bit of acting which reminds me of his superb movie "Enchantment" (1949). Wendy Hiller (who was in the Broadway performance of "Enchantment") is perfectly cast as Burt Lancaster's mistress. Burt Lancaster is Burt Lancaster, but I think he does a pretty good job and is convincing in his character. The way this movie is presented, you'd swear you were watching the play (also written by Terrence Rattigan). This is a movie you should own and watch often.