Separate Tables (1958) (DualDisc, Blu-ray + DVD)

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This film version of Terence Rattigan`s 1955 West End hit features a stellar ensemble cast. The film follows the interplay of a group of lonely characters who are staying at a slightly shabby seaside hotel in Bournemouth. The term `separate tables` refers to the practice of seating single guests at their own tables in the dining room, and serves as a metaphor for the characters` fear of intimacy. Major Pollack (David Niven) is a retired officer who likes to wax eloquent about fanciful acts of heroism in WWII North Africa, and Sybil Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) is a repressed spinster boxed in by an oppressive mother (Gladys Cooper). John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a cynical, hard-drinking, occasional writer, is surprised by the sudden arrival of his ex-wife Ann (Rita Hayworth). Though Ann`s legendary beauty is dimmed by age, Ann and John both reach tentatively for some human contact. Separate Tables, a work that now seems relatively tame, was controversial in its day for attempting to deal with sexual problems, however obliquely. The all-star cast is excellent, but it is the genius of Wendy Hiller, in a small part, that steals the show.