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,
Noel Gay as that in musical comedy grew. He began writing popular songs, using the stage name Noel Gay. According to Morley the name was derived "from a sign he read on a London bus in 1924: 'NOEL Coward and Maisie GAY in a new revue'." His pseudonym of Stanley Hill was used from time to time for his more sentimental work. After contributing to revues such as "Stop Press" he was commissioned to write the entire score and lyrics for André Charlot's 1926 revue. His next show was "Clowns in Clover", which starred Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert, a husband-and-wife team