Tonight at 8:30 1942, with a screenplay by Claudine West, Hans Rameau and George Froeschel. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard. The film starred Norma Shearer and Melvyn Douglas, and also featured Florence Shirley, Lee Bowman and Lenore J. Coffee. Coward adapted "Still Life" for the screen as "Brief Encounter" in 1945. The film was remade in 1974 starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. In May 2009, Houston Grand Opera premiered an opera in two acts based on "Brief Encounter", with music by André Previn from a libretto by John Caird. For a 1952 film "Meet Me Tonight", directed by Anthony Pelissier,
Noël Coward film versions of several Coward plays. Coward's most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful black comedy "Blithe Spirit" (1941), about a novelist who researches the occult and hires a medium. A séance brings back the ghost of his first wife, causing havoc for the novelist and his second wife. With 1,997 consecutive performances, it broke box-office records for the run of a West End comedy, and was also produced on Broadway, where its original run was 650 performances. The play was adapted into a 1945 film, directed by Lean. Coward toured during 1942 in "Blithe Spirit",