Once... Only Once in a Lifetime A Cast... A Story... A Motion Picture Like This!

Starring: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton, May Hallatt, Priscilla Morgan

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ - good

"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 watch this? Sometimes I simply love a good drama with top-notch talent.

Plot Summary: Set in a seaside hotel during the off-season, the film follows the separate lives of the lonely and repressed guests. The hotel's quiet routine is disrupted when two new arrivals stir up long-dormant secrets and emotional turmoil among the residents. Ultimately, the various dramas force the guests to confront their hidden insecurities and vulnerabilities.

Dad's Preview: It is the most common, most ordinary setting imaginable - people staying at a hotel by the sea. Yet, under the facade of routine smiles and courtesies, lies a web of dysfunction: an aging British playboy with a sordid past; an over-bearing, tyrannical mother oppressing her adult daughter; a glamorous socialite hell bent on destroying her ex-husband's current relationship. This powerful drama taps into the talents of David Niven, Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth, but it is Deborah Kerr who steals the film, as a hen-pecked woman finally on the verge of finding her strength and breaking away from all that has held her back. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, winning two: David Niven for Best Actor and Wendy Hiller for Best Supporting Actress. It's a drama to behold.

Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions, Clifton Productions; United Artists