Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian television film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. It was adapted from the play Still Life by Noël Coward.
Plot Two strangers, each married to another, meet at a railway station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair.
Main cast Richard Burton as Alec Harvey Sophia Loren as Anna Jesson Jack Hedley as Graham Jesson Rosemary Leach as Mrs Gaines Ann Firbank as Melanie Harvey John Le Mesurier as Stephen Patricia Franklin as Beryl Walters
Production The screenplay was adapted from the play Still Life by Noël Coward. This was also the basis for the David Lean's famous earlier film, Brief Encounter (1945).
Release The film had its premiere on U.S. television on 12 November 1974 as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series on NBC."TV: 'Brief Encounter'; Burton and Miss Loren Portray Lovers on Hallmark Film at 8:30 on NBC," New York Times, 12 November 1974 (subscription required)
Reception The two lead roles were cast with "wild disregard for suitability," according to Brian McFarlane, who has described the film as "a total disaster."Brian McFarlane, The Encyclopedia of British Film, London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p,82 Originally intended to have a television screening in the United States followed by a cinema release in the rest of the world, its poor reception in New York led to the international plans being abandoned. Rank, who owned the theatrical rights in the UK, sold them to television.David Shipman The Great Movie Stars, Volume 2, The International Years, London: Macdonald, 1989, p.335 According to David Shipman, reviewing Burton's career in The Great Movie Stars, this remake was "widely viewed as a ludicrous undertaking."Shipman, p.85
Novel A novelisation of the film, written by Alec Waugh, was published in 1975.
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