Anthony Havelock-Allan production was a film adaptation of Coward's 1939 play This Happy Breed, which was produced by Coward, directed by Lean, and shot by Neame. All three partners — Havelock-Allan, Lean and Neame — collaborated on the script. The exact same combination of talents created the 1945 film adaptation of Coward's comedy "Blithe Spirit". The quartet then produced the classic "Brief Encounter", with Havelock-Allan and Neame sharing producing duties with Coward, with Coward helping write the script, an adaption of his 1936 one-act play "Still Life". The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival while lead Celia
Post Mortem (Coward play) the play "a fine effort, a really fine effort... As argument it is first rate. As imagination magnificent … and gave me a thrill to read it." The "Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama" notes that "The British theater had abundant room for the comic Coward, but none for the angry, bitter Coward of "Post Mortem"", and that Coward had two playwriting personas: one "crowd-pleasing (and) comic", the other "darker (and) serious". The Encyclopedia does not record much appreciation, if any, even years later, for this play written by Coward's dark side. However, it bestows some backhanded praise by admitting that