Separate Tables movie synopsis. In Bournemouth, England, the Beauregard Hotel is located three minutes from the sea and managed by Pat Cooper. It is off-season and only the resident guests are lodged in the hotel. The timid Sibyl is a spinster and hysterical woman totally controlled by her arrogant and snobbish mother Mrs. Maud Railton-Bell that does not want that she works.
Sybil is secretly in love with the reformed Major David Angus Pollock and she enjoys listening to his stories. Lady Gladys Matheson is the only friend of Mrs. Railton-Bell. The medical student Charles wants to marry his fiancée Jean but she refuses. Miss Meacham and Mr. Fowler like to play billiards and she always wins the game. The American John Malcolm is an alcoholic writer that is secretly engaged of Pat.
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film starring Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, and Wendy Hiller, based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. Niven and Hiller won Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively for their performances. The picture was directed by Delbert Mann and adapted for the screen by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant and Edith Head designed the film’s costumes.
About the Story
The film is set in the Hotel Beauregard in Bournemouth on the south coast of England. Major David Angus Pollock (David Niven) fails to hide an article about himself in the West Hampshire Weekly News. His attempt to keep the article from the eyes of the other guests at the residential hotel only succeeds in heightening their awareness of it, particularly the strict Mrs Railton-Bell (Gladys Cooper) and the more relaxed and compassionate Lady Matheson (Cathleen Nesbitt).
The two women read that Major Pollock has pled guilty to sexually harassing several young women in a theatre. However, the filed complaints are, in themselves, questionable. Mrs Railton-Bell wants Major Pollock expelled from the hotel and holds a meeting with other long-term residents to decide the issue before presenting it to the manager, Miss Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller). Mrs Railton-Bell leads the meeting arguing for the Major’s expulsion, and despite the opposing views of the other residents, she informs Miss Cooper.
Anne (Rita Hayworth) and John (Burt Lancaster) meet outside. Anne coolly teases John, informing him that she is engaged; John tells her he is engaged as well, but does not disclose that he is engaged to Miss Cooper. John claims that though Anne could have married other men who were wealthier and more important, she wanted to marry a man in a lower economic class in order to manipulate and degrade him fully. Despite this, John and Anne admit they are still attracted to each other. She asks him to come to her room.
As they walk into the hotel, Miss Cooper tells Anne she has a phone call. Miss Cooper asks John, knowing Anne is his ex-wife, to reevaluate the real reason for Anne’s visit. John defends Anne at first, claiming that all his misfortunes are his own fault, but changes his mind when Miss Cooper tells him Anne is talking on the phone to his publisher, the only person who knows John and Miss Cooper are engaged. John confronts Anne in her bedroom.
She attempts to seduce him, but he tells her that, in the light, he can see that she has aged; without her physical beauty, it will be impossible for her to manipulate people. She begs him to stay, but he runs out of the hotel after striking Anne at the top of the staircase. Anne has an emotional breakdown, and Miss Cooper comforts her. Anne reveals that she is not really engaged and has been abusing sleeping pills to ease her pain, often during the day.
Separate Tables (1958)
Directed by: Delbert Mann
Starring: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton, Priscilla Morgan, May Hallatt
Screenplay by: Terence Rattigan, John Gay, John Michael Hayes
Production Design by: Harry Horner
Cinematography by: Charles Lang
Film Editing by: Marjorie Fowler
Set Decoration by: Edward G. Boyle
Art Direction by: Edward Carrere
Music by: David Raksin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: December 18, 1958 (New York City)
Visits: 134