Rating: 
Summary: Don't Miss This One!
Review: A great film with perfect casting. The sound track was beautiful and particularly wonderful when Rita Hayworth is introduced to the viewer. The story is unique and has such a good message: The hateful mother is a warning to those who never see the plank in their own eye but see the splinter in their neighbor's. It was good to see that the majority of the characters were able to forgive the sins and bad choices the main character had made in his life. A truly fine film.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, slightly stage-y film
Review: A group of aging hollywood stars delivers a fine adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play -- NOT IN AMAZON.COM, pls. note -- about a strange group of guests in a somewhat rundown British hotel after WWII. Burt Lancaster is an American torn between glamorous ex-wife Rita Hayworth, who turns up expectedly, and his current squeeze, the hotel's owner. David Niven plays a possible war hero and Deborah Kerr overplays a virginal girl under the thumb of her cruel mother. When the truth gets out about Niven's past, the dominoes start to fall and the characters reveal -- or learn -- their true identities. This would lay waste to most of the Sundance Festival tripe in today's film world. Absolutely first-rate.
Rating: 
Summary: Peyton Place in a Boarding House
Review: A varied assortment of guests sling gossip, secrets and loads of melodrama liberally around the rooms and grounds of an English boarding house. Profound? No. Entertaining? For the most part."Separate Tables" is what results when you mix "Peyton Place" and "Clue." Everyone's a suspect for Most Noble Sufferer, and mostly the cast does well with the material given, even if in many cases the material doesn't deserve the quality of the actors delivering it. Inevitably, some of the stories are more interesting than the others. The Burt Lancaster/Rita Hayworth love-hate plotline grew tiresome in record pace---and too bad, since obviously this is the story the screenwriter and director were most taken with. It definitely dominates. I wanted more of the Deborah Kerr/Gladys Cooper storyline. Deborah Kerr is a bizarre woman-child, unrecognizable in frump garb, dominated by her overbearing mother, Gladys Cooper doing her withering old biddie routine for the umpteenth time. Cooper is a riot, an old lady with WAY too much time on her hands, eager to go witch-hunting at every available opportunity. Poor David Niven is saddled with the role of a lonely British man pretending to be something he's not and trying to hide an embarrassing secret from the group. He wanders around in a smoking jacket doing his best Colonel Mustard impersonation, saying things like "Wot, wot" and mumbling lines to the point of unintelligibility. He inexplicably won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance (must have been a weak year), no doubt more for his body of work up to that point than for this performance specifically. He has maybe 20 minutes of screen time altogether and for most of them is required to do nothing more than look uncomfortable. The best cast member is Wendy Hiller, playing the proprietress of the hotel. Her acting is natural and low-key, and she gets the chance to play a fully rounded character, one with some implied history, and not merely an assemblage of mannerisms. The end of the film is a like a stuffy version of "Dead Poets Society." I would have given anything to see Deborah Kerr jump onto a table and start clapping, but I guess these guests are a bit too reserved for that sort of thing, wot, wot. Grade: C+
Rating:
Summary: Peyton Place in a Boarding House
Review: A varied assortment of guests sling gossip, secrets and loads of melodrama liberally around the rooms and grounds of an English boarding house. Profound? No. Entertaining? For the most part. "Separate Tables" is what results when you mix "Peyton Place" and "Clue." Everyone's a suspect for Most Noble Sufferer, and mostly the cast does well with the material given, even if in many cases the material doesn't deserve the quality of the actors delivering it. Inevitably, some of the stories are more interesting than the others. The Burt Lancaster/Rita Hayworth love-hate plotline grew tiresome in record pace---and too bad, since obviously this is the story the screenwriter and director were most taken with. It definitely dominates. I wanted more of the Deborah Kerr/Gladys Cooper storyline. Deborah Kerr is a bizarre woman-child, unrecognizable in frump garb, dominated by her overbearing mother, Gladys Cooper doing her withering old biddie routine for the umpteenth time. Cooper is a riot, an old lady with WAY too much time on her hands, eager to go witch-hunting at every available opportunity. Poor David Niven is saddled with the role of a lonely British man pretending to be something he's not and trying to hide an embarrassing secret from the group. He wanders around in a smoking jacket doing his best Colonel Mustard impersonation, saying things like "Wot, wot" and mumbling lines to the point of unintelligibility. He inexplicably won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance (must have been a weak year), no doubt more for his body of work up to that point than for this performance specifically. He has maybe 20 minutes of screen time altogether and for most of them is required to do nothing more than look uncomfortable. The best cast member is Wendy Hiller, playing the proprietress of the hotel. Her acting is natural and low-key, and she gets the chance to play a fully rounded character, one with some implied history, and not merely an assemblage of mannerisms. The end of the film is a like a stuffy version of "Dead Poets Society." I would have given anything to see Deborah Kerr jump onto a table and start clapping, but I guess these guests are a bit too reserved for that sort of thing, wot, wot. Grade: C+
Rating:
Summary: A Great Adaptation of the Play!
Review: All the stars are at their absolute best in this adaptation of Terrence Rattigan's 1950's play. David Niven greatly deserved that Best Actor Oscar for playing a military man with a dark past, Burt Lancaster was terrific as a man who wanted to get back with his divorcee, yet having a relationship with a younger woman. A terrific flick!
Rating:
Summary: One of the outstanding movies based on play
Review: Delbert Mann's "Separate Tables" is a beautiful movie based on a stellar cast of David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancastar, Rita Hayworth, and Wendy Hiller. It is set on the seaside, "Beauregard Hotel" in England and shows the lives of different people in the hotel. David Niven plays a retired army man who lives a fictitious life of a person who has fought glamorous wars in the desert, while he has a double life of a person who has a scandalous time at a local theatre. Deborah Kerr plays the life of a shy and simple girl who is tortured by her mother, Gladys Cooper, and not given any freedom and constantly reminded of her position and the class distinctions. Burt Lancaster plays the life of a writer, John Malcolm, who wishes to forget his past in drink. His ex-wife, Rita Hayworth comes to check on him as she is getting old and does not wish to be alone. She feels that John is the only person whom she can turn to. The screenplay in the movie is wonderful as are the roles of quite a few people in the movie. These include David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller, and Burt Lancaster. The music, though low key is appropriate for the movie. The story shows the ebbing of the class distinctions of Britain. Though the Major commits the errors, only one person is dead against it and the others are either ambivalent or are neutral about it. Gladys Cooper tries to badger others to get the major evicted from the hotel due to his bad behavior. Though some of them agree to her, the way they relent in the end is unusual. The romance between Mrs Shankland and John Malcolm is well portrayed without overdoing anything. I felt that Deborah Kerr's role was wonderful in this. It showed the breadth of her acting style, where she shows how she feels when her trust in the Major is betrayed and the innocence in the child-woman quality of her. Wendy Hiller is beautiful in her low key role of the proprietress of the hotel and how she handles all the people and the issues in the hotel. David Niven's role is fantastic, he shows his transformation from the confident army major to the frightened culprit about to be caught to the person admitting his fault to Deborrah Kerr superbly. The direction of the movie is very thoughtful without melodrama. Though the movie almost 50 years old, it still maintains its grace and style, which shows its timelessness. The end of the movie is subtle and lovely.
Rating:
Summary: One of the outstanding movies based on play
Review: Delbert Mann's "Separate Tables" is a beautiful movie based on a stellar cast of David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancastar, Rita Hayworth, and Wendy Hiller. It is set on the seaside, "Beauregard Hotel" in England and shows the lives of different people in the hotel. David Niven plays a retired army man who lives a fictitious life of a person who has fought glamorous wars in the desert, while he has a double life of a person who has a scandalous time at a local theatre. Deborah Kerr plays the life of a shy and simple girl who is tortured by her mother, Gladys Cooper, and not given any freedom and constantly reminded of her position and the class distinctions. Burt Lancaster plays the life of a writer, John Malcolm, who wishes to forget his past in drink. His ex-wife, Rita Hayworth comes to check on him as she is getting old and does not wish to be alone. She feels that John is the only person whom she can turn to. The screenplay in the movie is wonderful as are the roles of quite a few people in the movie. These include David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller, and Burt Lancaster. The music, though low key is appropriate for the movie. The story shows the ebbing of the class distinctions of Britain. Though the Major commits the errors, only one person is dead against it and the others are either ambivalent or are neutral about it. Gladys Cooper tries to badger others to get the major evicted from the hotel due to his bad behavior. Though some of them agree to her, the way they relent in the end is unusual. The romance between Mrs Shankland and John Malcolm is well portrayed without overdoing anything. I felt that Deborah Kerr's role was wonderful in this. It showed the breadth of her acting style, where she shows how she feels when her trust in the Major is betrayed and the innocence in the child-woman quality of her. Wendy Hiller is beautiful in her low key role of the proprietress of the hotel and how she handles all the people and the issues in the hotel. David Niven's role is fantastic, he shows his transformation from the confident army major to the frightened culprit about to be caught to the person admitting his fault to Deborrah Kerr superbly. The direction of the movie is very thoughtful without melodrama. Though the movie almost 50 years old, it still maintains its grace and style, which shows its timelessness. The end of the movie is subtle and lovely.
Rating: 
Summary: "Big things come in small packages"
Review: Excellent drama set in a seaside hotel which acts as a cruicible and window onto the human conflicts and frailties which lay beneath the surface of everday human lives. The movie excells in it's realism and depicition of integral human traits of love, jelousy, vanity and evil. Emotions and flaws which are as vivid and alive not only in wars, revolutions and mass upheavals, but also in the intertwining lives of all of us, including the inhabitants of this seemingly tranquil boarding house. Highly recommended. One of Burt Lancaster's best films.
Rating:
Summary: Check out the rare CBS/FOX edition!
Review: For lovers of this movie, keep an eye out for the alternate print, available only in the long-out-of-print 1987 CBS/FOX issue. This version of the film has a different main title, with Rita Hayworth getting top billing, plus a new prologue at the end of the main title, before the film starts.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent masterpiece!
Review: Great movie for a cold, rainy day or any time. Acting is superb, great cast, and wonderful screenwriting! David Niven is simply marvelous, what? what?. I'm glad he got the Academy Award.
Treat yourself to classy entertainment with "Separate Tables".
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