Separate Tables **** (1958, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper) – Classic Movie Review 5970

The double Oscar-winning 1958 black-and-white drama film Separate Tables is a Hollywood version of Terence Rattigan’s renowned pair of one-act plays about the dramas of guests at an English south coast resort hotel.

Director Delbert Mann’s double Oscar-winning 1958 black-and-white drama film Separate Tables is a Hollywood version of Terence Rattigan’s renowned pair of one-act plays about the dramas of guests at a British south coast resort establishment. We are in the off-season at the Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth, so only long-term tenants are still staying.

It is an acting feast, with two Oscar winning performances – with David Niven, as Major Angus Pollock, the bogus war hero from the colonies, and Wendy Hiller, as the hotel manageress Pat Cooper, deservedly winning the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress awards. Niven also won the Golden Globe as Best Actor – its only win. Surprisingly, there were no Bafta awards.

But equally impressive are Deborah Kerr as a lonely, vulnerable spinster, Sibyl Railton-Bell, and Gladys Cooper as the snobbish, steely mother who dominates her. Cathleen Nesbitt as Lady Matheson, Felix Aylmer as Mr Fowler and May Hallatt as Miss Meacham are also all essential acting ingredients,

Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth are always good company, but they are uneasily cast as a left-wing journalist, the alcoholic John Malcolm, and his beautiful ex-wife Ann Shankland, and stick out like a sore thumb at this Fifties British seaside hotel.

The movie’s fame is mostly merited, but despite its acclaim and renown at the time, the film now seems a bit theatrical and creaky. However, the quality of the acting still saves the day and director Mann handles it discreetly and tactfully but all too anonymously.

As a film of two one-act plays (Table by the Window and Table Number Seven, collectively known as Separate Tables) separated by 18 months, and as a study in people who are driven by loneliness into a state of desperation, it is hardly obvious movie material, so it is remarkable that the film is this good. The script, written by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes, skilfully opens the plays up and introduces some new parts.

Also in the cast are Cathleen Nesbitt  as Lady Matheson, Felix Aylmer as Mr Fowler, May Hallatt, Audrey Dalton, Rod Taylor in a small part as Charles, Hilda Plowright, and Priscilla Morgan. May Hallatt, playing Miss Meacham, is the sole survivor of the original London West End stage production, which had its premiere at the St James’s Theatre on 22 September 1954, with Margaret Leighton and Eric Portman.

It was remade for TV in 1983 by John Schlesinger as Separate Tables.

Lancaster and Kerr appeared famously in From Here To Eternity (1953) together.

Niven is the only actor to win an Oscar in the same year as being a host at the Academy Awards ceremony. Surprisingly, it is his only ever Oscar nomination. His Best Actor Oscar held the record for the shortest performance to win the award. The film’s producer Harold Hecht accepted Hiller’s Oscar.

There were five other Oscar nominations: Best Picture (Harold Hecht), Best Actress (Kerr), Best Adapted Screenplay (Terence Rattigan, John Gay), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Charles Lang), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (David Raksin).

John Michael Hayes worked uncredited on the screenplay. Mary Grant and Edith Head designed the film’s costumes. Burt Lancaster was also co-producer. Harry Warren and Harold Adamson write the theme song ‘Separate Tables’.

Rita Hayworth was married to co-producer James Hill.

The film was nominated for seven Oscars, Best Picture, Best Actress (Kerr), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Black and White), and Best Dramatic or Comedy Score, and won two (Niven for Best Actor and Hiller for Best Supporting Actress).

Top billing was divided, with Rita Hayworth billed before Deborah Kerr in the posters, and Kerr billed above Hayworth in the film.

Separate Tables runs 100 minutes, is a Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production, is released by United Artists, is written by Terence Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes, based on the play Terence Rattigan, is shot by Charles Lang, is produced by Harold Hecht, and is scored by David Raksin. It was released on 18 December 1958 in New York.

The cast are Rita Hayworth as Anne Shankland, Deborah Kerr as Sibyl Railton-Bell, David Niven as Major David Angus Pollock, Burt Lancaster as John Malcolm, Wendy Hiller as Pat Cooper, Gladys Cooper as Mrs Maud Railton-Bell, Cathleen Nesbitt as Lady Gladys Matheson, Felix Aylmer as Mr Fowler, Rod Taylor as Charles, Audrey Dalton as Jean, May Hallatt as Miss Meacham, Hilda Plowright, and Priscilla Morgan as Doreen.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5970

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