Delusional doper Katherine Hepburn (as Mary Tyrone), miserly patriarch Ralph Richardson (as James Tyrone), cynical son Jason Robards (as Jamie Tyrone), and tubercular son Dean Stockwell (as Edmund Tyrone) play four theatrical ghosts in an alcoholic fog, at the gates of Hell. If you watch carefully, you are bound to see, unveiled and unraveled, four people you know - along with playwright Eugene O'Neill, who (as "Edmund") explains:
"The fog was where I wanted to be. Halfway down the path you can't see this house. You'd never know it was here. Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn't see but a few feet ahead. I didn't meet a soul. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That's what I wanted - to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself."
Sidney Lumet's film version of O'Neill's autobiographical "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is one of a handful of "great American play" adaptations which must be considered a peak for the genre. These "stage to movie" dramas began with the "talkies", but were stalled by the Hollywood production "code". Decades later, they broke down censorship barriers quite artfully. This "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is one of the very best. Watch it, with great concentration, every twenty-five years or so
********** Long Day's Journey Into Night (5/62) Sidney Lumet ~ Katherine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell
"The fog was where I wanted to be. Halfway down the path you can't see this house. You'd never know it was here. Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn't see but a few feet ahead. I didn't meet a soul. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That's what I wanted - to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself."
Sidney Lumet's film version of O'Neill's autobiographical "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is one of a handful of "great American play" adaptations which must be considered a peak for the genre. These "stage to movie" dramas began with the "talkies", but were stalled by the Hollywood production "code". Decades later, they broke down censorship barriers quite artfully. This "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is one of the very best. Watch it, with great concentration, every twenty-five years or so
********** Long Day's Journey Into Night (5/62) Sidney Lumet ~ Katherine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell