Separate Tables (1958)

Deborah Kerr: Sibyl Railton-Bell

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Quotes 

• Sibyl Railton-Bell : He says we're alike, he and I.

  Ann Shankland : Did he?

  Sibyl Railton-Bell : He said we're both afraid of life and people and sex. There! I've said it. I've said the word! He said I hate saying it even and I do. He's right! He's right! I do! I do.

• Sibyl Railton-Bell : Why did you do it. WHY did you DO it?

  Major Angus Pollock : I don't know. I wish I could answer that. Why does anybody do anything that they shouldn't? Why do some people drink too much and other people smoke 50 cigarettes a day? Because they can't stop it, I suppose.

  Sibyl Railton-Bell : Then it wasn't the first time?

  Major Angus Pollock : No...

  Sibyl Railton-Bell : Oh, it's horrible...

  Major Angus Pollock : Yes, it is, of course. I'm not trying to defend it... You'll never guess this, I know, but ever since school I've always been scared to death of women... of everyone, in a way, I suppose, but mostly of women. I had a bad time at school - which wasn't Wellington, of course, it was just a counsel school... Boys hate other boys to be timid and shy, and they gave it to me good and proper. My father despised me, too. He was a Sergeant major in the Scots Guards. He made me join the Army, but I was always a bitter disappointment to him. He died before I got my commission. I got that by a wangle, too. It wasn't very difficult at the beginning of the war. But it meant everything to me, just the same: being saluted, being called "sir". I thought, "I'm someone now, a real person. Perhaps some woman might even..." But it didn't work. It never has worked. I'm made in a certain way and I can't change it.

• Sibyl Railton-Bell : Why have you told so many awful lies?

  Major Angus Pollock : Because I don't like myself the way I am, i suppose. I had to invent someone else... It's not harmful really. We all have our daydreams. Mine have just gone a step further than most people.

  [laughs ironically] 

  Major Angus Pollock : Sometimes I just manage to believe in the Major myself.

• Mrs. Railton-Bell : Of course, I realize you must miss some of the gaieties of life: the balls and cocktail parties and things that a few other lucky young people can enjoy. I do my best, you know.

  Sibyl Railton-Bell : Yes, I know you do, Mummy. Yes, I know.