Separate Tables (1958)

Synopsis: This film version of Terence Rattigan's 1955 West End hit features a stellar ensemble cast. The film follows the interplay of a group of lonely characters who are staying at a slightly shabby seaside hotel in Bournemouth. The term... This film version of Terence Rattigan's 1955 West End hit features a stellar ensemble cast. The film follows the interplay of a group of lonely characters who are staying at a slightly shabby seaside hotel in Bournemouth. The term "separate tables" refers to the practice of seating single guests at their own tables in the dining room, and serves as a metaphor for the characters' fear of intimacy. Major Pollack (David Niven) is a retired officer who likes to wax eloquent about fanciful acts of heroism in WWII North Africa, and Sybil Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) is a repressed spinster boxed in by an oppressive mother (Gladys Cooper). John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a cynical, hard-drinking, occasional writer, is surprised by the sudden arrival of his ex-wife Ann (Rita Hayworth). Though Ann's legendary beauty is dimmed by age, Ann and John both reach tentatively for some human contact. SEPARATE TABLES, a work that now seems relatively tame, was controversial in its day for attempting to deal with sexual problems, however obliquely. The all-star cast is excellent, but it is the genius of Wendy Hiller, in a small part, that steals the show. [More]

Starring: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Wendy Hiller

Starring: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Wendy Hiller, Burt Lancaster, Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor

Director: Delbert Mann

Director: Delbert Mann
Screenwriter: John Gay
Producer: Harold Hecht
Composer: David Raksin

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