Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Direction
Lean makes a train platform feel infinite.
Acting
Celia Johnson's voice cracks will destroy you.
Writing
Rachman's script: repression as poetry.
Director
David Lean
Celia Johnson
Laura Jesson
Trevor Howard
Dr. Alec Harvey
Stanley Holloway
Albert Godby
Joyce Carey
Myrtle Bagot
Cyril Raymond
Fred Jesson
Everley Gregg
Dolly Messiter
Marjorie Mars
Mary Norton
Margaret Barton
Tea Room Assistant Beryl Walters
Alfie Bass
Waiter at the Royal (uncredited)
Wallace Bosco
Doctor After Bobbie's Accident (uncredited)
Sydney Bromley
Johnnie, the Second Soldier (uncredited)
Noël Coward
Train Station Announcer (uncredited)
Nuna Davey
Herminie Rolandson (uncredited)
Valentine Dyall
Alec's Friend Stephen Lynn (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Noël Coward wrote the one-act play in 1936, basing Laura partly on a young woman he observed crying in a train station tearoom.
This single film basically invented the 'brief encounter' as a romantic trope—every stolen-hour romance since owes it rent.
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