David Lean Directs Noel Coward

David Lean is one of the world’s greatest film directors; Noel Coward is one of the world’s best – and most prolific — entertainers in almost any field. Naturally you would think that when they join forces, magic happens. And, as this set of four movies proves, it does. Of the four movies, their first collaboration, In Which We Serve, is perhaps the most straightforward, telling the story of the crew of a battleship as they go off to war. The way the directors weave in the stories of the men before they boarded the ship is impressive. Brief Encounter, the story of a tragic affair that starts when two people meet at a train station, is a classic tearjerker, and while it doesn’t pull at your heartstrings as aggressively, it’s hard not to be choked up with the ordinary life of the people trying to live their lives between the two great World Wars in The Happy Breed. Blythe Spirit, the story of a man whose deceased first wife is conjured up during a séance, is a bit of fluff, but still very entertaining.