SEPARATE TABLES

UK, 1958, 115 minutes, Black and white.
David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper, Felix Aylmer, Catherine Nesbitt, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton.
Directed by Delbert Mann.

Separate Tables originally consisted of two short plays for one programme in which the principal actor and actress took the main roles in each play. This aspect has disappeared from the film version and the two stories are interwoven. The film is somewhat typical Terence Rattigan material - a kind of drawing room drama with some powerful dramatic moments. The acting carries the film and makes up for what it lacks in structure.

Deborah Kerr gives another of her excellent, nervous character portrayals. David Niven, in the part that suits his style very well, is quite moving. He won the Oscar for this performance, as did Wendy Hiller for her role as the proprietress of the hotel. In contrast Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth look and sound like people from another world. In support Gladys Cooper is excellent. Separate Tables is engrossing and, sometimes, moving, with some incisive comment on human behaviour.

1. What are the implications of the title? Did the song add or detract?

2. The film was based on a play: was this evident? Were the two stories successfully interwoven? Did their conflicts and resolutions parallel one another in any way?

3. How well did the film communicate fear, love, hate, suspicion? Were these important themes for the film? How?

4. Comment on the special characteristics and contribution to the plot of the film of - Sybil, Mrs. Railton -Bell, the Major, John Malcolm, Anne, Pat Cooper, Lady Matheson, Mr. Fowler, Miss Meecham.

5. In having the group of people in the hotel did the film show a microcosm of the world?

6. Was the sub-plot of Charles and Jean important for the film?

7. Did the film show real insight into human nature? Were these particular individuals in the English hotel representative of human beings everywhere? Why?

8. Sybil: as a person, as a woman, her immaturity, her inferiority, her being subdued by her mother, her fears? How were these illustrated by the film? Convincingly? Did she belong to this kind of Bournemouth hotel? Why did she like the Major? How did she react to the news about the Major? Why did it have such a deep effect? How did this change her? How was she unable previously to break from her mother?

9. Mrs Railton -Bell: how typical of this kind of woman? Was she a cruel woman? How self opinionated? How selfish? Why did she treat Sybil as she did? Why was she frustrated? Her friendship with and domination of Lady Matheson? Her attitude towards others in the Hotel? The way that she revealed the truth about the Major? Where was audience sympathy here? What motivated her to lead the group against the Major? How was she shocked when Sybil refused to obey her? Did she get what she deserved?

10. The Major: did his explanation of his background, his fears, his career make sense? Was he a man to be pitied? What was the audience attitude towards him? Towards his bluff lies? His poses? His bad behaviour? Did he deserve the contempt of Mrs. Railton -Bell and the others? Why was he made a victim? Why did he merit sympathy from Pat and the others? His relation to Sybil? His not wanting to hurt her? His attempts to get somewhere else to live? His response to peoples' "good morning" to him?

11. The relationship between Sybil and the Major - was the Major right in saying they were alike? Why was Sybil afraid of this? How well did they communicate with each other? Why? Would their friendship go any deeper after the ending of the film? Why?

12. How was the rebuke of Mrs. Railton-Bell? a climax to the themes of the film? Was it handled well dramatically?

13. What kind of a person was John Malcolm? Why was he at this Hotel? Was he a failure? Why had his marriage to Anne failed? How dependent was he on Pat? Did he love her? What effect did Anne have on him when she was physically present? Did she make him feel inferior? A class and social question? What was the effect of Anne's visit and his intervention in the Major's situation? Did he find out some truth about himself? About Anne? Did they have any future together?

14. Anne: what kind of a person was she? Did she immediately gain audience sympathy? Why? Her being at once drawn into the Major's scandal? What was her attitude towards John? why was she trying to win him back? Did you suspect her motives? Was the truth about her poor image of herself convincing? Why did she depend on John?

15. The inter-relation between the two - what insight did it give into human love, hate, fears? What effect did they have on one another? destructive, constructive?

16. The role of Pat Cooper in the film - as the manager of the Hotel, and therefore some kind of objective comment on each of the characters? As a person, involved with John Malcolm? Was she a tough kind of woman, a sympathetic woman? Her ability to take John's rejection of her, her willingness to help Anne? Her sympathy for the Major? How admirable an ordinary woman was she?

17. Lady Matheson - what did she contribute to the plot, her relationship with Mrs. Railton -Bell, with Sybil? Her breaking free at the end?

18. Mr Fowler - what did he represent? His continual waiting for a past pupil to come to see him? His comments on Mrs. Railton-Bell's campaign - his disapproval of her, but his following her? Why did he change in sympathy for the Major?

19. Miss Meecham - plain common sense, strength of character eccentricity?

20. The importance of the "good morning" to the Major at the end? How did you feel when people were sympathetic towards the Major?