Separate Tables

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Mann's film will certainly please those who are fans of 'Grand Hotel' and other such star-packed films with a soap operatic-flavor, although it definitely is smaller in scale. It has several of my favourite stars from that era, such as Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, David Niven, Dame Wendy Hiller, Burt Lancaster and Rod Taylor, and their interplay befits such fine casting. It's weird seeing Lancaster and Niven cast as rogues, that a film set in Dorset, England was made entirely in Hollywood and that the screenplay was an amalgamation of two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan, opened up in order to include more stars. The endeavor worked, as Best Adapted Screenplay was one of its seven Oscar nominations (it ended up winning two, for Niven and Hiller's performances). I heartily recommend the film to anyone who enjoys either any of the aforementioned stars or fine films of the era (especially ones about the British, and ones derived from the stage). It'll certainly be 100 minutes worthy of your effort--Mann was one of the best at this sort of thing (also see 'Marty' if you have any such doubts)...