TV and Movies

[Oznell]

8:00 p.m. Eastern--  "Separate Tables"  Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Wendy Hiller

A Tuesday treat!  Top notch players enact the celebrated Terence Rattigan drama about guests at a genteel but gossipy English seaside hotel.  Deborah Kerr is a standout as the bullied daughter of an autocratic mother, and David Niven as a military man with a secret, but really, everyone is good.  Here's my little scribble on it from when TCM showed it last:  

https://community.qvc.com/t5/TV-and-Movies/Rita-Hayworth-Burt-Lancaster-Deborah-Kerr-Separate-Tables...

In the scene below, hotel guest Burt Lancaster (and suitor to the hotel proprietor, Wendy Hiller) is unpleasantly surprised when his ex-wife, (still beautiful but somehow fragile Rita Hayworth) shows up and shows concern:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1321844/Separate-Tables-Movie-Clip-Lies-With-Such-Sincerity.html

Not to be missed, engrossing and poignant.

[trenet]

@Oznell

They certainly are all wonderful performances. Gladys Cooper is chilling as the manipulative mother.  

[Oznell]

Oh, so true, @trenet.  She was especially good in such roles.

[kaydee50]

I was never much of a Rita Hayworth fan but have come to appreciate her after seeing more of her films.  I especially enjoyed An Affair in Trinidad which was much better than I expected.  She was convincing and she and Glenn Ford were a good team.  Separate Tables is a very good movie.  Haven't seen it in awhile an look forward to watching it tonight.

[Oznell]

And if you want to make this a "Rita" double feature, gang, note that right after "Separate Tables",  this follows:

10:00 p.m. Eastern--  "The Story on Page One"  Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa, Gig Young, Mildred Dunnock

Tense drama by playwright Clifford Odets, in which Rita is trapped in a nightmare marriage with an abusive lout.  She begins an illicit relationship with sympathetic Gig Young, but almost immediately things go wrong and tragedy strikes.

The film turns into an absorbing courtroom drama (one of my favorite genres) with adorable Anthony Franciosa the lawyer-- with problems of his own-- who takes on Rita's case. 

This is a first-- in searching for video, all I could find were collections of stills from the movie!  This one of Rita shows her mature radiance, changed but undimmed by illness and a tumultuous personal life...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhEx59DldEE

[Oznell]

Oh, how could I have forgotten that Rod Taylor was in "Separate Tables" too.  He was kind of a young whippersnapper in this-- love him...

[Catiele]

That was a time when people lived in hotels. Cannot imagine it. Rod Taylor was so young and handsome.

[GingerPeach]

Separate Tables was a real treat indeed.    

I kept looking for Deborah and finally realized she was the put-upon daughter.  

The casting was quite good, I thought.  Audrey Dalton isn't mentioned often, but she was perfect as a modern woman of the time, saucy and independent.  Although today she may not have had to agree to marry.

And there is just something so appealing about seeing Brits in a (I think) seaside hotel.  It brings to mind not only several Christie movie versions but even Fawlty Towers - and only in the most kind way.  I don't intend poking fun at any of this, just that the setting is so appealing.  

The subject matter was surprisingly universal and relevant.  Even the attitudes reflected today's thinking as we have still the rigid and the unrigid points of view.

Thanks, as always, @Oznell, for reminding us of these treasures.

[Oznell]

Oh, glad you liked "Separate Tables", @GingerPeach.  I didn't realize that was Abby Dalton!  Hubby was surprised by Deborah Kerr's mousy appearance-- he said , wow, they had to work pretty hard to tone her down!   I seem to remember briefly having a tight little hair-do at one time, similar to hers-- maybe I was eleven or twelve....

Yeah, that film has so much to offer with all those different, very talented actors working individually, and together.

ETA-- Oh, just realized "Audrey Dalton", not "Abby Dalton".   Never mind!