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So much average

Best movie of this year hands down!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This star-laden adaptation is awash with great performances. From.Burt Lancaster's melancholy journalist to Rita Hayworth's lonely socialite, from Wendy Hiller's frustrated hotel-keeper to Felix Aylmer's lonely teacher, this is a study in frustration, of people not achieving their ambitions and settling for compromises instead. At the center of the drama are David Niven and Deborah Kerr, the former as a false major.arrested for interfering with women in a movie theatre, the latter a dominated daughter with little or no power to express herself. Niven is quitebrilliant in an understated performance which shows him trying to come to terms with his inadequacies, even lf that means shedding the pretence of being a major and acknowledging that he was only a lieutenant. Kerr is virtually unrecognisable as the heroine of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; here she plays Sybil as a mousy character, totally ruled by her Gorgon-like mother (Gladys Cooper). At the end Sybil asserts herself, much to her mother's embarrassment, and supports thr former Major at the time he most needs lt. It does not seem much, but in Rattigan,storms Sybil's move represents a radical move towards self-belief.SEPARATE TABLES is not an action movie; it is a study in characters learning something about themselves and finding ways to cope with their lives. What they discover might not seem much, but it is highly significant for the characters themselves.

What surprised me in this movie is how much things have changed since 1958. It is hard to believe I was alive at the time. However, I remember well how a divorced person was something hushed like having cancer---or being dear God! an alcoholic---so yes this movie is believable. What an uptight nightmare. My second surprise is that 2 of the actors won Oscars--David Niven and Wendy Hiller--Niven best leading actor and Hiller supporting. But Niven's role was tiny! Just proves my feeling that Oscars mean absolutely nothing except who has connections or what new PC theme is being covered. (in this case frigidity)That said I found this talky movie a provenance of later talky boring adult themed intense about nothing movies with famous stars. It reminded me of Who is afraid of Virginia Wolf.This is an actors movies where the actors think they are finally being used for serious topics.The story is about a dozen guests in a hotel over a period of a couple days as various sub plots circle around a center plot of a man who inappropriately elbows women in movie theaters and what to do about such a guest. Topics include frigid wives--vicious gossips--losers who make up their pasts and an alcoholic writer. It is filmed in about 2 rooms.I would avoid it unless nothing else is available. It is not terrible in the way other movies are terrible it is just dull.

Having recently watched "You Were Never Lovelier" with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, it's interesting to notice how she was largely shot and directed throughout her career.Her dancing in "Lovelier" was fun and fine in "The Shorty George," where she's relaxed and clearly having a ball -- and appears to be keeping up with Astaire. "Appears" is the operative word. Astaire (who choreographed) carefully kept their routines within Hayworth's range, never challenging her beyond her capacities. But Hayworth completely lacked Ginger Rogers' lithe body fluidity and on screen electricity.Hayworth was stunningly beautiful, of course. But even in "Lovelier" there are moments when, not carefully lit, the forehead lines that were so apparent in later years (unless also carefully lit) were already apparent and fleetingly distracting.More to the point was how she was directed and photographed in "Lovelier." She actually has very few lines. What she does have are usually brief and delivered in a relatively quick take before cutting away.She never makes emotional transitions in a scene. Rather, the camera cuts to a new angle when she's called on to register a different emotion. The primary goal at all times is to maintain her seemingly flawless facial beauty. Fine in a fluff piece like "Lovelier."Cut to "Separate Tables" 16 years later.Hayworth is still beautiful if more "mature." AGAIN she is never shown making an emotional transition in one shot: cutaways are instead employed. The technique (to disguise her limited acting abilities) is particularly jarring in her dramatic scene in her bedroom with Burt Lancaster. On closer inspection, she "poses" from cut to cut rather than displaying her character's emotional arcs.Sure, she was supposed to be an aging model, all self-possessed poise. But not in that dramatic scene.Still, it's a fascinating lesson in how skilled film making disguises limited range. (For a heartbreaking account of the making of her last film, read Frank Langella's "Dropped Names.")Terence Rattigan's play was forced to disguise the homosexual "scandal" of the Major's (David Niven) being arrested for soliciting men in dark movie houses, though the implication is fairly clear.Knowing the repression of homosexuality at that time makes Niven's performance even more involving; especially once the scandal is revealed to the boarders at the Beauregard.Niven's amazing performance (in only 16 minutes of screen time) is disarmingly deep. He goes from an almost comical figure to an exposed fraud with a dark secret since childhood, to a lost late-middle-aged man with no future, to the final hope of redemption.Niven shows all his character's subtle emotional transitions in sustained takes (unlike Hayworth).Deborah Kerr is fine and completely convincing, as always.Burt Lancaster gives another version of Burt Lancaster in not his finest hour. "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Rose Tattoo," "Come Back, Little Sheba," "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "Judgment at Nuremberg" -- even "Trapeze" -- are better records of his talents. But he's always believable.The remaining cast, especially the nuanced Wendy Hiller, are terrific.Still, it's Hayworth's impression -- not her character's -- who lingers as something not quite real, not untalented, but unrealized and somewhat vacant. It's not her mental deterioration. It was there on screen from the beginning. She tried gamely throughout her career, and looked magnificent thanks to careful costuming, lighting and cinematography. But even with careful cutaway direction she seems little more than a paper doll -- and finally, tragically, just as fragile.

This movie is an under-rated little gem. Typical of its director, Delbert Mann, it has a low budget and limited set, but a cast with enormous talent. The excellence of the acting and the characters that emerge make this movie special. The movie takes place in a a hotel operated by Wendy Hiller, who is romantically involved with Burt Lancaster. His wife, played by Rita Hayworth, shows up unexpectedly to try to mend fences with her husband. As the movie progresses, David Niven, another of the residents, is exposed as a fraud with a scandal hanging over him. A younger woman, played by Deborah Kerr, has taken an interest in him. Kerr is manipulated by her domineering mother, played by Gladys Cooper, who has moulded her into a sad and shy young woman. As the ring leader of this haven of interesting characters, Gladys Cooper is positively delighted by the news of Niven's shady side and tries to evict him from the hotel. Will she succeed or will the good in people prevail? This is a fine movie with great performances by the cast, British and American. Not mentioned above is Felix Aylmer who adds a touch of class as Mr. Fowler as well as Rod Taylor and Cathleen Nesbitt whose minor roles contribute to the overall pleasure of this movie. If you get the chance, don't miss it.