Brief Encounter (1974 film) Brief Encounter (1974 film) Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian television film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, adapted from the play "Still Life" by Noël Coward. The plot of the film is about two strangers, both married to others, who meet in a railway station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair. The material was previously the basis for the David Lean film "Brief Encounter" (1945). Burton was cast at the last moment, after Robert Shaw dropped out. The film had its premiere on U.S. television on 12 November 1974 as part of the "Hallmark Hall of
Tonight at 8:30 Coward adapted "Ways and Means", "Red Peppers" and "Fumed Oak" (called "Tonight at 8:30" in the US). Coward himself played Christian Faber in a 1950 film of "The Astonished Heart" (also starring Celia Johnson and Margaret Leighton). Television adaptations of "Red Peppers" were released in 1937, 1938, 1958 and 1969. "Still Life" was given a television production in 1951. The NBC-TV anthology series "Producers' Showcase" debuted on 18 October 1954 with "Shadow Play", "Still Life" and "Red Peppers", produced and directed Otto Preminger, starring Ginger Rogers in all three; Martyn Green also starred in "Red Peppers". "Hands Across the Sea"