One is the loneliest number, but four can feel lonely too. Delbert Mann's Separate Tables, a film that would be branded Oscar-bait today and likely denounced for being that, is all about the feeling of being lonely, even in a room full of people. But the film, based on Terrence Ratitgan's collection of two-act plays of the same name, surprisingly gives audiences hope. Loneliness is curable and that cure can be found in surprising places.
Separate Tables is set at the Beauregard Hotel in England. There, we find four people in two relationships on seemingly individual tracks. American expatriate writer John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster) has been living there for years, since he was stationed there during the war. He's engaged to the hotel manager, Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller). But they are surprised when his ex-wife Anne (Rita Hayworth), a famous model, shows up to try to win him back. The other relationship involves the introverted Sibyl Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr), who is controlled like a puppet by her mother (Gladys Cooper), and Major Pollack (David Niven), a man who tries to make up for his faults by telling tall tales about his time in the war.
These two relationships work in tandem, surprisingly. Even though Anne and Sibyl should not even be in the same building together, there's parallels in their relationships with the man in their lives. Anne has tried to run from John and for good reason. He did go to jail for trying to kill her, after all. But there is still a magnetic pull between the two that even John can't ignore despite his efforts. They are clearly a destructive couple, but the only cure for their loneliness is the love they share, no matter the cost.
For her part, Sibyl has lived in the hotel for an unknown period of time, under the thumb of her mother. She is kind and quiet, but is prone to tearful outbursts if pushed too hard. The only person in the hotel she has no trouble befriending is Pollack, since he is just as quiet and shy – that is, when he's not talking about his amazing adventures in the war. When it's discovered that he's a fraud, she is told to reject his friendship, the only one she's ever known.
The film is truly a master class in acting. Mann, who shot to fame quickly by directing the 1955 Best Picture winner Marty, could have given Elia Kazan a run for his money if he really tried. Like Kazan, Separate Tables is evidence that Mann could get truly incredible performances out of his actors. Another director might not have pushed Kerr to completely reject her beautiful looks. Her performance in this film is simply awe-inspiring, because we see someone who just five years prior was making out with Lancaster on the beach transform into a cowering young woman who can't even bear to say the word “sex.”
But it isn't just Kerr's performance that is truly remarkable. Niven, who received his only Oscar nomination (and won) for this film, is also completely against type. We are used to seeing the dashing leading man of Around the World in 80 Days play the man the Major wants to be. That he doesn't turn out to be a war hero, but played by a man who did serve admirably in the war, makes the character even more pathetic.
Hayworth is also playing a character that plays on her off-screen life. In real life, Hayworth was as much a model as a movie star, and had just married her fifth husband as cameras rolled on Separate Tables. In the film, she plays a model also constantly searching for love but it is much more than just playing herself. She had struggled throughout the '50s and that struggle was plainly painted on her face in Tables. Gone was the girl who flipped her hair into frame in Gilda and she is surprisingly proving that she could act when given the opportunity.
While Lancaster is good too, the last performance that must be singled out is Hiller, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this. She never really gets that big outburst scene you expect, but the fact that the audience is led to believe that she could is the real lynchpin to this performance. She confronts Lancaster, making him cower and become a little boy on screen as she comes to terms with her own lonely future. Hiller truly is one of the underrated figures in cinema, even though she was the first Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion. Hiller does not need a big crying spat to make her role memorable.
Separate Tables is also impressively photographed in black and white a tight space by the always incredible Charles Lang and features a score from David Riskin that isn't intrusive.
Despite being nominated for Best Picture (and losing to Gigi, a movie on the polar opposite end of the film spectrum), Separate Tables isn't a film you hear about very often. Its theme of loneliness might turn off viewers looking for straight entertainment, but the ending does provide a much sunnier outlook on life than you may think. Like every other aspect of this film, it's a quiet and nuanced opinion of how people can come together. You just have to be willing to say “Good morning” to the person next to you and, hopefully, you have made both your and the other person's days that much brighter.
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