Overview
This collection brings together three of Coward's most important
screenplays - In Which We Serve (1942), Brief Encounter (1945) and The
Astonished Heart (1950). The collection features the shooting scripts
for each film alongside contextual notes for each play, and a general
introduction, by Barry Day. In Which We Serve earned Coward an Academy
Honorary Award in 1943 as well as the New York Film Critics Circle Award
for Best Film. The film remains a classic of wartime British cinema.
Brief Encounter, the most famous screenplay in this collection, is based
on Coward's 1936 one-act play Still Life. It remains one of the
greatest love stories of all time, coming second in a British Film
Institute poll of the top 100 British films. The Astonished Heart tells
the story of a psychiatrist's growing obsession for a good-time girl and
the resulting tragedy this leads to. This collection features a
foreword by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus, Film, at New
York's MoMA, and an eight-page black and white plate section of
production stills.