Separate Tables

I was extremely fortunate to see the original play in London with Eric Portman and Margaret Leighton when I was a student there. I was knocked out with it, especially as the two leads doubled the roles as indeed Julie Christie and Alan Bates do in this wonderful TV version. What a tour de force this is for any actor and you need actors of great quality to make these roles completely different and, more importantly, believable. For anyone who is not familiar with Rattigan's stage play then this is the version to watch. The film version with Burt Lancaster, David Niven and Deborah Kerr, was messed about with by combining the two separate plays and re-writing the characters to suit the American casting of Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth. In this TV production the casting throughout is superlative. They bring this tale of deep loneliness and pathetic hypocrisy to life without it being overly sentimental in any way. I have since directed the play on stage and the more you read the actual script you realize what a wonderful performance this TV version is. Clare Bloom is very effective as Pat Cooper, the hotel manageress. Irene Worth is just superb as the vicious Mrs Railton Bell and the rest of the cast are faultless. Alan Bates and Julie Christie make this a joyous feast of acting to watch. I truly don't know which is the better performance. Also I really loved the music used as the introduction and prologue to this film. A must for anybody who really enjoys first class acting.

The Hollywood version of this, though well thought of at the time, is pretty awful. So it's great that this version was done for TV, by the same folks who produced the often wonderful "American Film Theater" series some ten years before. Alan Bates was in three of those. He is typically fine here.... Julie Christie gets to stretch in the two parts She does here. Is it possible Julie Christie could have ever been such a repressed wallflower in real life?

It's great stuff. A few years back I picked up a copy (it's not on DVD) for nothing on ebay, now I see copies are going for forty bucks. Some things on VHS are bound to fall between the cracks when it comes to DVD. See this if you get the chance....

Alan Bates and Julie Christie take on Terence Rattigan's fine brace of stories and give lessons in the art of acting. Bates is wonderful and Christie is nothing short of miraculous. A must see.

What an interesting concept! Having only seen the 1958 movie, I had no idea that the original Separate Tables was written for two actors to double up on roles and show their acting range. I did know it was based on two Terence Rattigan one-acts, and that Hollywood merged them into one comprehensive story. The first act deals only with the Burt Lancaster/Rita Hayworth reconnection, and the second with the scandal of David Niven and Deborah Kerr's reaction to it. It's incredibly interesting (not to mention great fun for the actors) to have one actor play both Lancaster and Niven's roles, and one actress doll up for Hayworth and dress down for Kerr.

In this filmed live production, Alan Bates and Julie Christie collaborate for their dual roles. They have wonderful chemistry together, and with four films under their belts, we can hope they were friends and enjoyed working with one another. I loved seeing the physical transformation of Julie, with hair and makeup to match Rita Hayworth in Act One, and glasses, a dowdy hairstyle, and slumped posture in Act Two. She's a beautiful woman, and the audience is always aware of that, but she does the best she can to act emotionally stunted and therefore unaware of her looks and potential in the second act.

The acting absolutely shines in Separate Tables. The story is a bit thin, and some might not agree with the message, but it's wonderful to sit back and appreciate great actors collaborating. Claire Bloom has the enviable role of the innkeeper, and she handles it extremely well with professionalism and control. She truly is the "matriarch" of her residents, able to handle all of their quirks, and make it look easy. Irene Worth is so realistic in her role (Gladys Cooper in the movie) that it's impossible to imagine her without her snobbery, nosiness, and opinions. Alan and Julie both transform, making the most of the script to build their characters and convince the audience that they really are two different people. This is a very entertaining play, if you have the right cast to watch.

John Schlesinger filmed Terence Rattigan's famous play from the 50's pretty much as is - there's no "opening up" of the play, and the two one-act segments are not combined, as they were in the 1958 film version. The play itself is, no surprise, dated and rather quaint, though you can see it must have seemed fairly sensational stuff back in the mid-50's, with allusions to sex crimes and homosexuality. At its best, though, it offers a penetrating depiction of loneliness and the stifling nature of English society at the time.

Also, most satisfyingly, it offers a banquet of tour-de-force performances. Julie Christie and Alan Bates are splendid and moving, each in dual roles, and make a fine team, as they have several other times as well. Claire Bloom is understated and marvelous, as always, and the supporting characters are picture-perfect. This is a cast that could hardly be bettered, and they make this perhaps the finest version of this particular play we are likely to see. Worth while for anyone who loves good acting!