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 congenital bachelor." Coward firmly believed his private business was not for public discussion, considering ""any" sexual activities when over-advertised" to be tasteless. Even in the 1960s, Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, "There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don't know." Despite this reticence, he encouraged his secretary Cole Lesley to write a frank biography once Coward was safely dead. Coward's most important relationship, which began in the mid-1940s and lasted until his death, was with the South African stage and film actor Graham Payn. Coward featured Payn in several of his London