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ANNOUNCER: The House of Squibb presents "Academy Award"! Tonight, Greer Garson in
"Brief Encounter"!
ANNOUNCER: Every week, Squibb brings you Hollywood's finest -- the great picture
plays, the great actors and actresses, techniques and skills chosen from the honor
roll of those who have won, or been nominated for, the famous golden "Oscar" of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences!
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The name Squibb stands for progress through research. Squibb is a name you can
trust.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, Squibb brings you "Brief Encounter," the picture which, at the
international film festival in Cannes, France, was voted as the best British motion
picture shown. In "Brief Encounter," you will hear Greer Garson, the talented
Hollywood screen actress who has six times been nominated for -- and in 1942, won
-- the coveted Academy Award.
NARRATOR: Are you an arbiter of love affairs? Can you judge a man and a woman?
Apply the yardstick of a moral code to their acts? Can you sit alone and aloof and
view dispassionately? Well, then you are the judge and the jury. And this story --
of one man's wife and another woman's husband -- could never happen to you. For
you've never lived a lifetime in one brief encounter.
NARRATOR: This is the story of Alec Harvey and Laura Jesson and a life lived in the
commuter section of a railway station.
LAURA: (NARRATES) This can't last. This misery can't last. I must remember that and
try to control myself. I'm going home to Fred, my husband, and my family. Nothing
lasts, really -- neither happiness nor despair. Not even life lasts very long.
Someday I'll be able to look back and say -- quite peacefully and cheerfully -- how
silly I was. No! No, I don't want that time to come, ever. I want to remember.
Every minute. Always. Always, to the end of my days!
LAURA: Fred?
LAURA: Really and truly, it's nothing. I'm just a little run down, that's all. I
had a sort of fainting spell at the refreshment room at Milford.
LAURA: No, Fred, really, no. I'll sit here by the fire.
FRED: All right, darling. Do you mind if I putter along with this crossword puzzle
then?
LAURA: Please go ahead. (BEAT) Would you mind if I played some music? Turn on the
wireless?
MFX: CLASSICAL PIECE ON THE RADIO ... RACHMANINOFF'S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 -- WHICH
RECURS THROUGHOUT THE PLAY... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
LAURA: (NARRATES, FILTERED) Poor Fred. Dear Fred. I don't want you to be hurt.
We're a happily married couple, we must never forget that. This is my home. You are
my husband. And my - my children are upstairs in bed. I'm a happily married woman.
Or was, until a few weeks ago. Oh, Fred, I've been so foolish. I've fallen in love.
I'm an ordinary woman. I didn't think such violent things could happen to ordinary
people. It all started on an ordinary day, in the most ordinary place in the world
- the refreshment room at Milford Junction.
LAURA: (NARRATES, NO FILTER) I was having a cup of tea. I looked up and saw a man
come in from the platform. He turned and I saw his face.
LAURA: (NARRATES) It was rather a nice face. And then I gathered up my things and
started out.
SFX: DOOR OPENS ... TRAIN RUMBLES BY NOISILY, THEN FADES DURING FOLLOWING
LAURA: (NARRATES) And suddenly something got in my eye. It was a terrible nuisance,
it really did bother me. And then - he was there.
ALEC: Turn 'round to the light, please. Now, look up. Now, look down.
LAURA: Yes, it was when the Express went through. Thank you very much indeed.
P. A.: (FILTERED) The train now arriving on Platform Three for Churley, Lea Green
and Manchester!
LAURA: Oh, never mind; you did, and I'm really most grateful.
LAURA: Goodbye.
LAURA: (NARRATES) That's how it all began, just through me getting a little piece
of grit in my eye. I completely forgot the whole incident -- at least, I - I
thought that I had. But the next Thursday, I met him again. [X]
LAURA: Oh, perfectly all right. How kind it was of you to take so much trouble.
ALEC: Oh, it's nothing at all. Ah, it's clearing up, I think.
LAURA: (LAUGHS)
ALEC: Goodbye.
LAURA: Goodbye.
LAURA: (NARRATES) There was another morning -- coincidence, I told myself. I was
having lunch at the Kardomah Cafe. He came in; it was crowded, and he sat at my
table. I happened to say that I was going to the pictures as usual that afternoon
and he asked if he could go with me. It seemed so - so silly to say no. So he did.
[X]
LAURA: (NARRATES) Walking back to the station, he put his hand under my arm. I
didn't notice it then. But I remember it now. (AFTER A PAUSE, TO ALEC) What's she
like, your wife?
LAURA: How funny. I should have thought she'd have been fairer.
LAURA: Medium height, brown hair, kindly, unemotional -- and not delicate at all!
(LAUGHS)
LAURA: Did I? Uh, we've got time for a cup of tea before our trains go.
ALEC: Oh, that's a long story. Perhaps - because I'm a bit of an idealist.
LAURA: Oh, I think all doctors should have ideals, otherwise their work would be
unbearable.
ALEC: I am terribly ambitious really. Not for myself so much, but for my special
pigeon.
ALEC: You see, most good doctors, especially when they're young, have private
dreams -- that's the best part of them. Sometimes though, those get
overprofessionalised and strangulated. Uh, am I boring you?
ALEC: What I mean is this. All good doctors must primarily be enthusiastic, must
have a sense of vocation -- a deep-rooted, unsentimental desire to do good.
ALEC: Well, obviously preventing disease is worth fifty ways of curing it. It's
concerned with living conditions and hygiene. For instance, my speciality is
pneumoconiosis.
ALEC: Well, don't be alarmed, it's simpler than it sounds. It's nothing but a slow
process of fibrosis of the lung due to the inhalation of particles of dust.
LAURA: (NERVOUS) Oh no. No, I couldn't really. (EVASIVE) You were saying something
about inhaling dust?
ALEC: (UNNERVED) Oh, yes, uh-- The inhalation of coal dust. That's one specific
form of the disease -- it's called anthracosis.
ALEC: Chalicosis, that comes from metal dust. Er, steel works, you know.
LAURA: I see.
ALEC: Yes.
LAURA: You mustn't miss it.
ALEC: No.
ALEC: I'm so glad. So have I. I apologise for boring you with these long medical
terms.
LAURA: Oh, I feel dull and stupid not being able to understand more.
LAURA: Your train is the other platform, isn't it? You'll have to run.
LAURA: Yes, of course. Perhaps you'd come over to Ketchworth one Sunday. We'd be
delighted to--
LAURA: Run.
ALEC: Goodbye.
LAURA: (NARRATES) I stood there watching the red light of his train disappear.
MFX: SNEAKS IN
LAURA: (NARRATES) Something clutched at my heart, and a chill of fear passed around
me.
MFX: TOPS EVERYTHING FOR A CLIMAX ... THEN IN BG
LAURA: Fred?
LAURA: Fred, I had lunch with a strange man today. He took me to the movies.
FRED: Fine. I say, darling. It was Richard the Third who said "my kingdom for a
horse," wasn't it?
MFX: ACCENT ... BRIEF BRIDGE ... THEN IN BG, OUT AT [X]
LAURA: (NARRATES) He was waiting early Thursday morning when I arrived. We went to
the movies again. And, afterward, to the park and the lake. It was a-- It was a
mad, a - a wonderful afternoon! I felt like a young girl again. And then later, we
were walking back to the station, hand in hand, for tea. [X]
SFX: POURS MILK, ADDS SUGAR ... TEA CUPS CLINK IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING
ALEC: That it's the same with you. That you've fallen in love, too.
ALEC: Why?
ALEC: Listen, it's too late now to be sensible as all that. It's too late to forget
what we've said, because we know. We've both of us known for a long time.
LAURA: How can you say that? I've only known you for four weeks. We only talked for
the first time - last Thursday week.
ALEC: Last Thursday week? Has it been a long time for you since then? Answer me
truly.
LAURA: Yes.
ALEC: How - how often did you decide that you were never going to see me again?
ALEC: So did I.
ALEC: I love you. I love your wide eyes, the way you smile -- and your shyness. The
way you laugh at my jokes.
ALEC: I love you, I love you, you love me, too. It's no use pretending that it
hasn't happened, because it has.
LAURA: Yes, it has. But it must stop here. We're, neither of us, free - to love
each other. Too much in the way. There's still time, if we control ourselves and
behave like sensible human beings-- There's still time to--
ALEC: Yes.
LAURA: Goodbye.
LAURA: (NARRATES) I stared out of the railway carriage window into the dark and
watched the dim trees, the telegraph posts sliding by. And through them I saw Alec
and Me. Alec and me! Just a little younger than we are now. But just as much in
love, and with nothing in the way. I saw us in Paris, in a box at the opera. And
then we were in Venice, drifting along the Grand Canal in a gondola, to the sound
of mandolins, coming across the waters. I saw us looking over the side of a ship,
at the sea and the stars -- standing on a tropical beach in the moonlight, with
palm trees sighing over us. And then-- And then the palm trees changed into those
pollarded willows by the canal just before the level crossing -- and all the silly
dreams disappeared. And I got out at Ketchworth and walked home. Quiet, soberly,
and without wings. (WEEPS) Without any wings at all.
SFX: APPLAUSE
(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)
ANNOUNCER: Before continuing with Part Two of Academy Award, we wish to announce
that Greer Garson appears by arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, producers of the
Technicolor production "The Yearling," starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman.
MFX: THEME ... THEN IN BG
ANNOUNCER: And now the House of Squibb presents Part Two of Academy Award, starring
Greer Garson in "Brief Encounter," with Carl Harbord as Alec.
LAURA: (NARRATES, FILTERED) Fred, my dear, that week was misery. I went through it
in a sort of trance. How odd of you not to have noticed that you were living with a
stranger in the house. Thursday came at last, I'd arranged to meet Alec outside the
hospital at twelve-thirty. [X]
ALEC: Hello.
LAURA: Hello.
ALEC: I thought you wouldn't come. I've been thinking all week that you wouldn't
come.
LAURA: (NARRATES, NO FILTER) We went to the Royal Hotel for lunch. It all seemed
very grand. He actually ordered a bottle of champagne and when I protested, he said
we were only middle-aged once. As we were going out together, he said that he had a
surprise for me and, if I could wait in the lounge for five minutes, he'd show me
what it was. Suddenly, out of the dining room, came that rich, made-up Mary Norton.
She must have been in the dining room all the time -- and seen Alec and me and the
champagne and everything! [X]
MARY: Laura! So it was you after all! I peered and peered and just couldn't be
sure.
LAURA: I never saw you at all. How awful of me. I expect it was the champagne. I
can't drink champagne at all, but Alec insisted.
LAURA: Alec Harvey, of course. Doctor Harvey. Well, surely you remember the
Harveys? Why, I've known them for years.
LAURA: Well, he'll be back in a moment. You'll probably recognise him if you peer
very closely.
LAURA: Here he is now. (POINTED) Alec, you remember Mrs. Norton, don't you?
MARY: It's no use, Laura. We've never seen each other before in our lives. (AMUSED)
I'm sure we haven't.
LAURA: Oh, how absurd. Well, I made certain that he and Madeleine were there when
you dined with us just before Christmas last year.
MARY: (NOT CONVINCED) Oh. Perhaps. Well, I must be going. Goodbye, Doctor Harvey.
ALEC: Goodbye.
ALEC: Oh, forget it. Come out and look at the surprise.
ALEC: Oh, but you can't. I've got a little car out there. We'll go for a drive.
LAURA: No, Alec, no. Let me go. I've got to go. I've got to.
ALEC: Laura!
MFX: BRIDGE
ALEC: I've watched every train. I can't let you go like this.
LAURA: You must. It'll be better -- really it will.
ALEC: Laura. Could you really say goodbye and never see me again?
ALEC: I love you, Laura. I shall always love you until the end of my life. I can't
look at you now because I know something. I know that this is the beginning of the
end. Not the end of my loving you, but the end of our being together. (PLEADS) But
not quite yet, darling. Not quite yet.
ALEC: I know about the strain of our different lives. Our lives apart from each
other. And the feeling of guilt -- doing wrong -- is too strong, isn't it? Too
great a price to pay for the happiness we'd have together. I know all this. It's
the same for me, too.
ALEC: Let's be very careful. Let's prepare ourselves. A sudden break now, however
brave and admirable, would be too cruel. We can't do such violence to our hearts
and minds.
LAURA: I see.
ALEC: Promise me, that however unhappy you are, and however much you think things
over, you'll meet me again next Thursday.
LAURA: Where?
LAURA: No, I'm not angry. I don't think I'm anything really. I just - I just feel
tired.
ALEC: For taking a bit of grit out of your eye. For loving you. For bringing you so
much misery.
LAURA: (NARRATES) All that week -- "Thursday! Thursday!" And now today, our very
last together in all our lives. I met him. We drove out through the country. And we
didn't talk much. I felt numb, sort of, and hardly alive. And then we were back,
walking through the station, and my mind was saying "This is the last time with
Alec. The last time. The last time." [X]
ALEC: I'll miss my train and wait to see you into yours.
LAURA: No, no, please don't. I'll come over to your platform with you. I'd rather.
LAURA: Do you think - do you think we shall ever see each other again?
ALEC: I don't know. Not for years anyhow. I'm going to South Africa.
LAURA: (PAUSE) Oh. Funny. Your children will be all grown up. Mine, too. I wonder
if they'll ever meet, and know each other.
ALEC: All right, dear. I love you so terribly. I love you with all my heart and
soul.
MARY: Why, Laura! What a lovely surprise, my dear. Oh, I've been shopping till I'm
dropping. My feet are nearly falling off and my throat's parched.
P. A.: (FILTERED) Train now arriving on Platform Four, the Five-Thirty-Four for
Churley, Lea Green and Langdon.
LAURA: (NARRATES, DISTRESSED) I felt the touch of his hand on my shoulder for a
moment. Then he walked away -- away -- out of my life forever. I prayed he'd come
back, pretending he'd forgotten something, anything. I wanted to see him again,
just for an instant. The minutes went by. Then - then I thought I wouldn't be able
to bear it another moment.
LAURA: (PAUSE, NARRATES) I meant to do it, Fred! I really meant to! I stood there
trembling, right on the edge. (SOBERLY) But I - I turned and went back to where
Mary was finishing her tea. And then I nearly fainted.
FRED: Whatever your dream was, it wasn't a very happy one, was it?
LAURA: No.
FRED: You've been a long time away. Thank you for coming back to me.
SFX: APPLAUSE
ANNOUNCER: Next Wednesday, another great story! The House of Squibb will present
"Academy Award" starring Ronald Colman in "Lost Horizon"! We wish to thank J.
Arthur Rank, the producer of "Brief Encounter," for making this story available.
"Brief Encounter" is being released in this country by Universal-International
whose current film is Nunnally Johnson's "The Dark Mirror," an International
Picture.
This is Hugh Brundage bidding you good night until next Wednesday at the same time
when you're invited to listen again to "Academy Award" -- presented by the House of
Squibb, a name you can trust! This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System!