A David Niven jag from Ice Cold in Alex (also 1958). He got Oscared for what is eventually a very good simulation of phoney apartness, similar to Mary Tyler Moore's in Ordinary People (1980) but less frosty. Also for Deborah Kerr (Oscar nommed) who is unwatchably nervy and histrionic, and for Burt Lancaster who is wryly amused throughout, at least until Rita Hayworth (decent) made him face up to things. Wendy Hiller won an Oscar for a solid but minor effort as Lancaster's squeeze of the present day.
The topic is sexual politics and imaginary identities at a coastal Bournemouth hotel during the off season sometime after the War. It's a bit of a dry run for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, being derived from a stage play by Terence Rattigan (who got help from John Gay with the screenplay). The various characters are stereotypes (whatever the critics of the day thought). I don't think there was much humour in the script.
Directed by Delbert Mann (Marty (1955)) who (IMDB trivia asserts) took over from Laurence Olivier after he was fired by Lancaster.
