Separate Tables: A Review (Review #2215)

SEPARATE TABLES

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Rita Hayworth.

Grand Hotel brought together a cavalcade of stars to interact with each other at a luxurious Berlin hotel. Separate Tables might be seen as Grand Hotel's lower-rent cousin. The disparate, desperate lives of those in Separate Tables flows well even if it never fully escapes its stage roots.

The efficient Miss Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller) oversees the respectable Hotel Beauregard in Bournemouth, England, three minutes from the sea. She has her regular clientele, some of whom stay there for months on end. There is the excessively avuncular Major Pollack (David Niven), forever going on about his various war exploits and posh background. These stories thrill mousy spinster Sybil Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) and irritate her domineering mother Maud (Gladys Cooper). Maud Railton-Bell's friend, Lady Gladys Matheson (Cathleen Nesbitt) is neither here nor there when it comes to the Major.

A younger couple, Charles (Rod Taylor) and Jean (Audrey Dalton) are more open about their liaison. Charles is studying medicine, and Jean keeps getting in the way. Maud sees this with a wary eye. Miss Cooper is the model of propriety and efficiency. However, she too is a woman after dark. The object of her affection is John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster). He is an occasional drunk who had served in Britian during the war. He also has done time in prison. John and Pat seem close to actually marrying, but an old complication comes back.

That complication is Ann Shackland (Rita Hayworth). She is both a former beauty and John's ex-wife. Does she want him back? Will she let a minor thing like John's relationship with Miss Cooper get in the way of a reunion? John is conflicted, but so is Ann. She may be putting up a front to mask her own fears of loneliness and aging. 

The Ann/John/Pat triangle may have to take a backseat to a bigger scandal. Major Pollack has been desperate for news from the West Hampshire Weekly News to not be seen by the other guest. His efforts, unfortunately, have had a Streisand effect. The eagle-eyed Mrs. Railton-Bell has found that the Major has pleaded guilty to inconveniencing up to five females at a theater. The sordid nature of this news is enough for Mrs. Railton-Bell to try and get the other guests to insist that the Major be thrown out. 

Will Miss Cooper find herself without a major? Will Miss Cooper find herself with a lover? Will Sybil find herself without a major? How will the various lives at these separate tables end?

Separate Tables is not well-remembered today. However, it does have a curious place in Academy Award history. David Niven won Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollack. His total screentime of 23 minutes and 39 seconds is of this writing the shortest performance to win Best Actor. Separate Tables also won Wendy Hiller the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Her total screentime is 21 minutes and 48 seconds. 

It is most fascinating that someone can be considered Supporting and someone else can be considered Lead when their screen-times are separated by less than three minutes. In a curious turn, Deborah Kerr, the third nominated Separate Tables performer and the only one who did not win, is on screen for approximately the same amount of time as Niven. Kerr was nominated for Best Lead Actress. Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster were, technically, on screen longer than Kerr, Niven and Hiller but were not nominated.

This is not the time to discuss whether or not David Niven and Deborah Kerr are lead or supporting actors. It is also not the time to discuss whether Niven and/or Kerr should have won or lost. Instead, let us focus on the various performances in a film that earned seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture. 

Separate Tables is an actor's showcase. We see a collection of talented performers mostly play against type. This may have been a major factor as to why David Niven won as the disgraced major. This is not the usual Niven performance of the charming, elegant man. Major Pollack is deeply anxious and troubled. He's also a masher, which also plays against the Niven persona. David Niven does have an elegant and moving monologue when he is confronted by a pained Sybil. He expresses his fears of women and of his own poor background. In terms of acting, it is a solid bit of work.

In terms of a leading performance, that is still iffy. Niven disappears for a good part of Separate Tables, leading one to think that maybe he should have been in Supporting rather than Lead.

Separate Tables is, as stated, a way to see many actors play against type. Rita Hayworth is quite strong as Ann. This is no glamour girl. Her performance of Ann is of a vulnerable woman, fearing aging and loneliness. She works well with all her fellow actors. When she is with Lancaster, she can be flirtatious or deeply vulnerable depending on the situation. When she is with Kerr, she is empathetic. Rita Hayworth showed that she was a strong, capable and competent actress in Separate Tables. It takes great skill to match skill with acting powerhouses like Kerr and Hiller, and Hayworth is equal to the task.

Deborah Kerr also plays against type as the meek, frightened Sybil. In fact, I did not recognize her until late into the film. She never overdoes the timid, mousy Sybil. Kerr makes the character into someone who does yearn for something even if she is frightened of sex (as she herself says). Hiller makes great use of her time as Miss Cooper. She is efficient and effective as the hotel manageress but shows that deep longing when she is with Lancaster's Malcolm. Gladys Cooper is a strong element as the judgmental Mrs. Railton-Bell.

I would say that Burt Lancaster is the weakest part of Separate Tables. He always shows his acting, as if jutting out his chin is expressing various emotions simultaneously. There is almost always something big in Lancaster's manner. I found him a bit over-the-top throughout the film.

Separate Tables has a lovely opening title theme, which surprisingly was not nominated for Original Song. The adaptation of Terence Rattigan and John Gay (based on Rattigan's two-act play) never fully escapes its stagebound roots. Parts of Separate Tables feels like a filmed play. It does, to its credit, manage to blend both acts (Table by the Window and Table Number Seven) well, if not completely smoothly.

Separate Tables is a good film with strong performances by almost all the cast. It allows the various actors to show sides of themselves that the public rarely saw. It might not be well-remembered today. However, I think Separate Tables has enough to merit recognition beyond its Oscar-winning performances of questionable length. 

DECISION: B+