Separate Tables

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Mark B @Thelaser555 Sep 15, 2026 Stand out performances from a heavy weight cast including Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth makes this a compelling drama from start to finish. David Niven plays the phoney Major perfectly, while Deborah Kerr as the neurotic and repressed daughter of her overbearing mother goes through the motions brilliantly and is almost too painful to watch. All the residents of this seaside hotel are the sort of people you never made friends with at school. They all come together in the end as Niven, playing stiff upper lip Major Pollock, is outed as nothing more than a common groper (against women) in several cinemas, and has rightly been recently prosecuted. He offers to leave the hotel in disgrace but he ends up changing his mind- much to the approval of most of the other guests. The closing shot of the sad, pathetic characters making small talk over breakfast is a classic British scenario. Let's talk about the weather. Never mind that you like groping innocent women in cinemas, Major. See more joe D @Welshboy May 11, 2026 There isn't one mass murderer, alien invasion, car chase or pile up, terrorist, fantasy figures or super hero to be seen so it won't probably appeal to those under the age of 40. Just people eating at separate tables in an English seaside resort. Loved it particularly Wendy Hiller & Gladys Cooper. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 Apr 18, 2026 An outstanding cast put on convincing performances about human fragility in expressing their emotions and damage they’ve wrought throughout their lives by covering up their insecurities with various emotional crutches. It’s a simple premise and plot but this was the art of the golden age of Hollywood when great acting and screenplay alone could produce a compelling hit. Watched on Amazon Prime. See more sebastian andres o @Yoamoalcine Nov 3, 2025 A magnificent film that is pure history. That unfiltered cinema, with impeccable screenwriters and dazzling stars. That cinema where dialogue builds stories and spaces, that wonderful cinema that always makes us fall in love. One of those great films that deserves to always be in our cinephile memory. See more Naomi L @RT97740323 Aug 26, 2025 Such an unpleasant testament to how physical abuse and sexual harassment of women were played down at this point in history, taints the whole film. It's quite strong, especially as it is clear that these are expected behaviours of the time; it's not a satire on these behaviours. Mr Malcolm has clearly hit his wife in the past because they talk about a scar on her head which needed 5 stitches and a week in hospital (!), and he dismisses it as surely gone by now. He accuses her of being manipulative and then holds her head aggressively and states that he can see beneath the makeup and she is getting older, and will therefore soon lose any power she had to manipulate men. Shortly after, he knocks her down on the stairs and leaves. When he returns, the woman he is engaged to is deeply concerned about how he is, and dismissive of the hurt occasioned to his former wife. Incredibly Mr Malcolm and his ex wife get back together because she is afraid of being alone and would rather go back to an abuser. The other would-be couple involves a military man who wasn't actually in the war and confesses that from childhood he has been ridiculed and made to feel excluded. This means that he repeatedly sexually harasses women in cinemas - the darkness and strangers being the key factor that enables him as he has never been with a woman. This comes out in the film, the police are involved, but the women's reports of sexual harassment are pooh-poohed even though he later confirms them. This is the first time he has been caught, so he got away in the past by presumably the women not reporting it or being disbelieved. We are then expected to be sympathetic, because the hotel is painted as a refuge for these abusers against a backdrop of charming music. None of it is satire, and I also knew that all of this was acceptable at the time, but as an example of how wrong our attitudes were in the past, it's quite incredible as it would take only slightly different music and direction to show these characters as the unforgivably bad men they are. See more Alain E @AlainE Mar 15, 2025 It’s a little melodramatic, with characters that exist to serve the story as opposed reflecting actual human beings. The acting however is measured. The situations don’t exactly make sense. David Niven plays a fraudster who exaggerates his previous military career. He gets arrested at a movie theater for unwelcome advances to several female members of the audience. Somehow, he becomes irresistible to the repressed spinster played by Deborah Kerr, who in addition appears significantly younger than their actual age difference. Burt Lancaster is in a serious relationship with the hotel manager, when a previous paramour shows up. His new fiancée encourages him to reconnect with her predecessor. All that occur documented in nicely restored black and white image. As was the tradition at the time, there are accentuated shadows in every direction inside every room. On Prime. The Academy was impressed enough to give two awards. See more Read all reviews

Separate Tables

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