VHS : Separate Tables - Plus The Original Theatrical Trailer [1958]

Rating: - A gem of a movie!

This is a movie centred around a marvellous story.

David Niven plays a 'fake' Major. This is because he hides a secret past which is about to become public knowledge at a small Hotel where he has been staying some time. He is 'sweet' on a 'spinster-ish' woman (Deborah Kerr) who's dominated by her possessive mother (Gladys Cooper) There are other stories within this picture, but the story between 'The Major' and 'Sybil' is by far the most touching and absorbing. There are some wonderful scenes in this, and David Niven gives an outstanding performance and gets much sympathy from the Viewer.

This film not only shows how cruel and judgmental people can be, but how the best can be brought out after their shame - and in contrast, just how kind they can be.

A gem of a movie.

Also stars Felix Aylmer, Cathleen Nesbitt, Rod Talyor, Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster.

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Rating: - An Uninteresting Star-Studded Movie
This is Terrence Rattigan's character study of five individuals staying at a resort British town of Bournemouth. The setting of this motel is a symbol of a refuge for these five desperate characters trying to make their lives better, and staying out of troubles. The movie, directed by Delbert Mann, casts some of the best actors in Hollywood. David Niven won an Oscar award for his role as a retired Major (Angus Pollack). Mann is known for great comedic movies such as, Lover Come Back, and That Touch of Mink. His modest directorial role in this film is insufficient to make this movie interesting.

Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth), a former model comes in search of her ex-husband John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), who is currently engaged to Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller), the manager of the motel. Other residents of the motel include, Sybil Railton (Deborah Kerr) an unassertive and frightfully repressed young lady living with her wealthy mother Mrs. Railton Bell (Gladys Cooper). She is casually befriended by Angus Pollack (David Niven) who has been charged with a minor sexual infraction in a public theater. As the lives intersect, emotions grow tense, providing all of the characters with their big dramatic moments. While David Niven offers a fine performance in this otherwise boring film, the viewers are some what bored by the role of Ms. Kerr who is known to have made some of the best movies Hollywood could offer. This movie is far from the magic of "Here to Eternity" that showed Deborah Kerr's love-making scene with Burt Lancaster on the Hawaiian beach.

Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster shine as ex-lovers forced to examine their pasts. Hayworth plays a passive woman in a reconciliatory mode who has not lost love for her ex-husband in spite of the fact she is engaged to be married again. Gladys Cooper is interesting to watch as she uses her status as a wealthy woman to control the opinion of the rest of the residents of the motel to throw Major Pollack out of the motel because of his run in with the law. The movie moves slowly in spite of some penetrating character study of the five individuals.

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Rating: - Worth the small price
A wonderful period piece and a confirmation that a good story and interesting characters make a film more than special effects and fancy computer work.

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Rating: - Wonderful museum piece from the fifties.,
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 coming 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, their actions predictable. Sybil (Kerr) seems particularly unrealistic now, her constant refrain of "Yes, Mummy," a constant 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

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Rating: - Everyone staying at this Hotel has a secret.
Meet the guests at this hotel. Learn about their desires, secrets and hopes for the future. Each one has a tale to tell each one is desperate.