This was an adaptation of a Terence Rattigan play being made by Hecht-Hill-Lancaster (HHL), one of the leading independent production companies of the 1950s. HHL had started in 1948 as a partnership between the star Burt Lancaster and his agent Harold Hecht to create vehicles for Lancaster; later on screenwriter James Hill joined the team. For its first ten years HHL led a blessed life, producing a series of successful films such as Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948) and Apache (1954). In the anxious environment of Hollywood in the 1950s, HHL were seen as having the Midas touch, particularly after they made the Lancaster-less Marty (1955). (By 1957 HHL could claim that they had never lost money on a film in ten years ) In 1956 they signed a $40 million deal with United Artists to make 18 pictures over four years – the biggest independent production distribution deal in history. Separate Tables was part of a two year program of nine proposed films costing $25 million. (The others were The Devil’s Disciple, The Rabbit Trap, Take a Giant Step, Bandoola, The Way West, The Catbird Seat, Lucy Crown, and Tell it to the Drums.)
Separate Tables consisted of two plays over the one evening with two actors in both plays as different characters. Both plays were set at the same English seaside hotel: ‘Table by the Window’ is about a former Labor MP who is haunted by his ex-wife; ‘Table at Number Seven’ is about the relationship between a painfully shy woman, Sybil, and an army major with a guilty secret.
Hecht and Lancaster saw the play in London during its two year run and purchased the screen rights for a minimum of US$250,000. The lead roles were originally offered to Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, with Olivier agreeing to direct as well. It was then decided that the device of actors doubling up would perhaps not work as effectively on camera as it did on stage and that four actors would play the lead roles. This would also enable two more stars to be cast: Lancaster (as the Labor MP – rewritten to be an American) and Debora Kerr (as the shy girl).
Terence Rattigan visited Hollywood for six weeks to work on the film. It was an unhappy experience, the writer being dissatisfied with story conferences, the cost of servants, and Hollywood’s use of tranquilizers. Other writers were brought on to the screenplay, including John Michael Hayes, John Dighton and John Gay; Gay is the one who shares final screen credit with Rattigan.
By March, Leigh was off the project after “a disagreement over the script”; one theory was Olivier was not enthusiastic about working with his wife, because she had just undergone electroshock treatments for her schizophrenia. Leigh was replaced by Rita Hayworth, then romantically involved with Jim Hill (they later married). Eventually Olivier withdrew as well, reportedly because of a disagreement over structural changes in adapting the play for the screen. His role as the Major was taken by David Niven.
By this time Delbert Mann, who had made Marty for HHL, had agreed to direct. Mann had been hesitant to do the film, thinking it needed an English director, but had been talked around by Hecht who said Mann could use a primarily English support cast and go to England for research. Mann travelled to Bournemouth, visited a hotel like that described in the play, and “within hours on the first afternoon I had found a prototype for every character Terry had written – the ex-military man, the horse player, the retired teacher, the impoverished gentility, the shy, the lonely.”
Hecht was true to his word and provided a support cast that consisted of the cream of English acting, what Sheridan Morley later called “the last great stand of the Hollywood English”: Cathleen Nesbitt, Gladys Cooper, Wendy Hiller, and Felix Aylmer.
Mann claims that during filming HHL began to split into two camps, with Hecht on one side and Hill and Lancaster on the other. During post-production, Hill and Lancaster arranged for the film to be re-edited, arguing it was too slow and had too much emphasis on the Major-Sybil story. A theme song sung by Vic Damone was added to the film, put over the opening credits. Mann was furious at the changes – he swore he would never work for HHL again and he never did.
Separate Tables was cleverly marketed through a planned series of screenings in projection rooms and theatres, and a number of items planted in newspapers. United Artists invited 21,000 people to view the film, including opinion makers, women’s groups, and teenagers. Since the film was released during a newspaper strike , it was promoted through use of subway advertising, sound trucks, sandwich signs, and radio ads.
Separate Tables was released in December to generally excellent reviews. They were deserved, for it is an intelligent film with some superb acting: Lancaster and Hayworth rise to the occasion, and Kerr, Hiller and Niven are excellent. If the film is a little talky, the talk is of high quality.
Separate Tables received seven Oscar nominations, with Niven winning for Best Actor and Hiller for Best Supporting Actress. It had been made for $2.8 million and earned rentals of $2.7 million in the USA and Canada, making it equal 20th on the list of top-earning films for 1959. The film was something of a last hurrah for HHL, whose Midas touch eventually left them and suffered a series of box-office flops which causing the company to fold (including an adaptation of the Australian play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959))
Sources: Variety, Thomas Kiernan, Oliver: The Life of Laurence Olivier (London: Sedgwick & Jackson, 1981), Delbert Mann, Looking Back… At Live Television & Other Matters. (Los Angeles: DGA, 1998)
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