Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz 

Stiff film adaptation of the one-act plays "Table by the Window" and "Table Number Seven" by Terence Rattigan. It plays out like small-scale version of The Grand Hotel. Director Delbert Mann ("Marty"/"The Bachelor Party"/"Jane Eyre") keeps it as a messy and artificial character study of a group of long-term residents from the British seaside town of Bournemouth, who are staying at the Beauregard Private Hotel in the off season when the summer guests have departed. The hotel is efficiently run by its pleasant dignified manager Miss Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller). The chic guests are an unhappy assortment of misfits, losers and tortured souls.

David Niven plays the part of a phony major, the delusional man who tries to impress the mousy Deborah Kerr character with war stories of him as a hero. Deborah Kerr plays the role of a shy girl, who is accompanied by her overbearing and sarcastic mom (Gladys Cooper). Burt Lancaster is a writer suffering from past pains and is a recovering alcoholic, who has become involved romantically with the Hiller character. Rita Hayworth is cast as Burt's fashionable former wife, who changes the dynamics of her exes relationship with the hotel manager when she surprisingly checks into the hotel and manipulates how to get back together with her ex. Before the final curtain comes down, all the monumental problems seem to be miraculously settled. The well-made play and once well-thought of film seems to be lifeless when viewed today.

David Niven and Wendy Hiller won Academy Awards. 

REVIEWED ON 6/1/2011       GRADE: C

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

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