Brief Encounter

TCM fan Matthew Myrick joins Ben Mankiewicz for an introduction and comments following Brief Encounter, 1945.

Guest host Michael Phillips introduces Brief Encounter, 1945.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces Brief Encounter, 1945.

Opening scenes, Godby (Stanley Holloway) working bar girl Myrtle (Joyce Carey), Dolly (Everley Gregg) intruding on Laura (Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) who, director David Lean will reveal, are in a desperate private moment, from Brief Encounter, 1945.

Opening credit sequence for David Lean's acclaimed film from the Noel Coward original screenplay, Brief Encounter, 1945, starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.

Still narrating in her flashback in her imagined confession, Laura (Celia Johnson) feels contrition if no shame over her visit with new friend Alec, arriving to discover an emergency at home, husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) helping her through, in David Lean's Brief Encounter, 1945.

Laura (Celia Johnson), well into her internal imagined confession to her husband, recalling her first proper sit-down with doctor Alec (Trevor Howard), at her usual luncheon on her Thursday shopping trip, in David Lean's Brief Encounter, 1945.

Ben Mankiewicz on his pick for the month, David Lean's often-overlooked romance Brief Encounter, 1945, from the March edition of TCM's Now Playing: The Show.

Having persuaded husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) that she's not upset over her fainting spell, some poignant chat leads Laura (Celia Johnson) into her narrated flashback in earnest, in Brief Encounter, 1945, directed by David Lean from a Noel Coward play.

Together at the movies again, Laura (Celia Johnson) continuing her internal monologue for her husband, with Alec (Trevor Howard), sharing a spontaneous and intimate moment, in David Lean's Brief Encounter, 1945.