David Niven in Separate Tables (1958)
Vitals
David Niven as David Angus Pollock, charming yet deceitful retired British Army officer
Bournemouth, England, Spring 1958
Film: Separate Tables
Release Date: December 18, 1958
Director: Delbert Mann
Costume Supervisor: Mary Grant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The legendary David Niven was born 115 years ago today on March 1, 1910. Though he’d been an Academy Awards host for three different ceremonies, Niv was only once nominated—and awarded—an Oscar.
As of this date, Niven’s performance in Separate Tables remains the shortest ever to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, clocking in at just under 24 minutes of screen time. Coincidentally, he was also one of the hosts during the 31st Academy Award ceremony when he won, making him the only person to ever win an Oscar at the same ceremony he hosted. In honor of Niv’s birthday and tomorrow night’s Academy Awards ceremonies, let’s look deeper at the acclaimed actor’s Oscar-winning performance.
Niven portrayed David Angus Pollock, a self-described “old retired warhorse” from the British Army who masks the shame of his disgrace with a loquacious charm and the dignified affectations expected of a correct military background, though he’s all too aware that his sleazy misdeeds are soon to be reported in a local newspaper. Rather than the distinguished “desert rat” Major who saw action during World War II, Pollock had spent the war as a Supply Corps lieutenant (no shame in that!) who was shortly disgraced for making immoral advances on anywhere between one and six women in a theater (definite shame in that!)
Among the Hotel Bournemouth’s captious guests, Pollock finds a friend in the shy Sybil (Deborah Kerr), whose haughty mother leads the effort to have “the Major” banned from the hotel after four years in residence.
Sybil: Why have you told so many awful lies?
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. Sometimes I just manage to believe in the Major myself.
What’d He Wear?
We meet “Major” Pollock during his evening stroll, layered against the chill in a coat and hat—though he quickly removes the latter as he sports and approaches Sybil. He clearly aims to maintain his martial appearance by wearing a classic “British warm”, the distinctive style of greatcoat first adopted by British Army officers around the start of World War I.
“Originally an excellent double-breasted regulation Army officer’s greatcoat,” Sir Hardy Amies describes in ABCs of Men’s Fashion, published six years after Separate Tables was released, “after the war, it was adapted or developed into a very smart style of civilian overcoat, usually in camel-colored or fawn wool, in near-imitation of the original.”
Typically made of a densely woven Melton woolen twill, the British warm is characterized by its neat, parallel arrangement of woven leather buttons and a trim, tailored cut through the body that may flare at the skirt. Pollock’s 6×3-button coat has the requisite peak lapels, detailed with swelled edges, straight gorges, and a straight buttonhole through each side. As illustrated by Pollock’s coat, military-informed shoulder epaulets are a frequent feature of the British warm—with a smaller button fastening the innermost end of the epaulet strap. His set-in sleeves are finished with two functioning cuff-buttons, and a single vent splits the back up to David Niven’s waist line. In addition to the welted breast pocket, the coat features two straight, set-in hip pockets covered with flaps.
Pollock keeps warm in his British warm.
Pollock maintains a dignified approach to dressing for leisure in a dark blazer with open-neck shirts and day cravats. Likely made from the traditional dark navy-blue wool, Pollock’s double-breasted blazer recalls the naval reefer jackets that gave rise to the garment’s popularity in the late 19th century. The crested gilt shank buttons are arranged in the classic 6×2-button stance, though Pollock always only buttons the lowest one. The peak lapels have slanted gorges and more body than his overcoat, though both lapels are detailed with buttonholes.
The shoulders are typical of English tailoring, fully padded and roped at the sleeve-heads. Each sleeve is finished with four cuff-buttons. Shaped with darts, the ventless blazer has straight jetted hip pockets and a welted breast pocket that Pollock dresses with a white kerchief.
Pollock’s cotton shirts may be plain white or possibly cream or pale-blue, though it’s very unlikely that he would sport any but the most conventional shirting colors. The shirts have double (French) cuffs, fastened with links. He wears the front placket fully fastened, save for the top button at the neck, which he wears open with the shirt’s spread collar flat over the outside of his blazer lapels to better show his day cravats.
Day cravats are a less formal neckwear alternative to ascots, though many erroneously refer to day cravats as “ascots”. Pollock’s first day cravat is a two-toned jacquard print with a light regal design against a pitch dark ground.
On the second day, Pollock wears a simpler day cravat with multi-colored bar stripes against a dark ground. Based on his comments about his scarf, these are almost certainly the Wellington College stripes in yellow, light-blue, and orange against a dark-navy ground.
Even in black-and-white, the slightly different-shaded stripes in Pollock’s scarf reinforce to the viewer that he is likely indeed wearing the Old Wellingtonian colors.
Pollock specifically refers to his long woolen scarf depicting “the Old Wellingtonian colors”—again being yellow, light-blue, and orange against a dark-navy ground. Pollock intentionally presents himself as a Wellington College alumnus, as this storied Berkshire boarding school boasts a deep association with military glory, from its founding in 1853 as a national monument to the British victory against Napoleon to the more than 1,200 former Wellington students who served and died fighting both world wars. “The College’s curriculum has always aimed to fit students for all walks of life, but its military tradition was strong for many years,” according to Wellington’s website.
A gentleman by reputation—if not practice—Pollock never unbuttons his blazer around the other guests, so we see little of his trousers aside from the turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottom. The medium-dark woolen cloth is almost certainly gray, as gray flannels are a timeless accompaniment to navy blazers.
Pollock’s cap-toe five-eyelet oxford shoes have non-black suede uppers—almost definitely brown. “Like a hand-rolled white linen handkerchief peeking out of the breast pocket of a tailored jacket, this footwear makes anything with it appear more expensive and smart,” Alan Flusser writes of brown suede shoes in Style and the Man, adding that “these shoes look good with clothing of any type or color and, owing to their break with traditional shiny-surfaced footwear, represent something of a departure for the arriviste fashion consumer.”
In the context of the Separate Tables era, Sir Hardy Amies wrote in 1964 that suede is far more popular now than a few years ago for boots or shoes and is entirely acceptable for either town or country, provided it is kept fresh by frequent brushing with a soft brush.” Considering Pollock’s attentiveness to maintaining his mustache, it serves to reason that he would take equally as good care of his kicks.
The color of Pollock’s dark hosiery is more speculative but lower stakes, though context and decorum would suggest his ribbed socks are either navy or charcoal to call out the predominant tones in the rest of his outfit.
Best seen with the handsome worsted suit that he wears for the final scene, Pollock’s dress watch is strapped to a smooth dark leather bracelet on his left wrist. Following the practice of many actors of the era, I suspect this was Niven’s own timepiece—likely the same yellow-gold watch with a gold dial and black strap which he sported on screen that same year as a less apologetic scoundrel in Bonjour Tristesse.
How to Get the Look
David Niven in Separate Tables (1958)
From his waxed mustache and club stripes to shining blazer buttons and British warm greatcoat, “Major” Pollock strives to maintain the dignified appearance becoming of an officer and a gentleman even when dressed for leisure. Context clues help identify the colors, even when little to no color photography exists from Separate Tables.
- Dark navy-blue wool double-breasted blazer with peak lapels, gilt 6×2-button front, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
- White or off-white cotton shirt with spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
- Navy-blue “Old Wellingtonian” school stripe day cravat with yellow, light-blue, and orange bar stripes
- Dark-gray woolen flannel trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
- Brown suede cap-toe five-eyelet oxford shoes
- Dark ribbed dress socks
- Light-brown Melton wool double-breasted “British warm” greatcoat with straight-gorge peak lapels, brown woven leather 6×3-button front, shoulder epaulets, welted breast pocket, straight flapped set-in hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Navy-blue “Old Wellingtonian” school stripe woolen scarf with yellow, light-blue, and orange stripes
- Gold dress watch with round gold dial on smooth black leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
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.
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