Details by Film
In Which We Serve
Streaming Options
This Happy Breed
Streaming Options
Blithe Spirit
Streaming Options
Brief Encounter
Streaming Options
In Which We Serve
In the midst of World War II, the renowned playwright Noël Coward engaged a young film editor named David Lean to help him realize his vision for an action drama about a group of Royal Navy sailors (roles that would be filled by Coward himself, Bernard Miles, and John Mills, among others) fighting the Germans in the Mediterranean. Coward and Lean ended up codirecting the large-scale project—an impressive undertaking, especially considering that neither of them had directed for the big screen before (this would be Coward’s only such credit). Cutting between a major naval battle and flashbacks to the men’s lives before they left home, In Which We Serve (an Oscar nominee for best picture) was a major breakthrough for both filmmakers and a sensitive and stirring piece of propaganda.
This Happy Breed
David Lean brings to vivid emotional life Noël Coward’s epic chronicle of a working-class family in the London suburbs over the course of two decades. Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are surpassingly affecting as Frank and Ethel Gibbons, a couple with three children whose modest household is touched by joy and tragedy from the tail end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second. With its mix of politics and melodrama, This Happy Breed is a quintessential British domestic drama, featuring subtly expressive Technicolor cinematography by Ronald Neame and a remarkable supporting cast including John Mills, Stanley Holloway, and Kay Walsh.
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit, David Lean’s delightful film version of Noël Coward’s theater sensation (onstage, it broke London box-office records before hitting Broadway), stars Rex Harrison as a novelist who cheekily invites a medium (Margaret Rutherford) to his house to conduct a séance, hoping the experience will inspire a book he’s working on. Things go decidedly not as planned when she summons the spirit of his dead first wife (Kay Hammond), a severe inconvenience for his current one (Constance Cummings). Employing Oscar-winning special effects to spruce up Coward’s theatrical farce, Blithe Spirit is a sprightly supernatural comedy with winning performances.
Brief Encounter
After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a muted but passionate, ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar for her role), David Lean’s film of Noël Coward’s play Still Life deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release.
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- New interview about the film with No
- New interview about the film with No
- New interview about the film with No
- Audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder
- A booklet featuring new essays by Ian Christie, Terrence Rafferty, Farran Smith Nehme, Geoffrey O'Brien, and Kevin Brownlow
- A Profile of
- Interview with cinematographer-screenwriter-producer Ronald Neame from 2010
- Episode of the British television series The South Bank Show from 1992 on the life and career of Coward
- New interview about the film with Noël Coward scholar Barry Day
- Audio recording of a 1969 conversation between actor Richard Attenborough and Noel Coward at London
- Trailers
- Trailer
- A Profile of “Brief Encounter,” a short documentary from 2000 on the making of the film
- Trailer
- David Lean: A Self Portrait, a 1971 television documentary on Lean
- Trailer
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Release Notes on Restoration
The monaural soundtrack was restored from a sound print made from the original nitrate track negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.
The monaural soundtrack was restored from a sound print made from the original nitrate track negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.
The monaural soundtrack was restored from a sound print made from the original nitrate track negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.
The monaural soundtrack was restored from a sound print made from the original nitrate track negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.