Long Day's Journey Into Night (1973) (TV)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Peter Wood

Writer:

Eugene O'Neill (play)

Release Date:

10 March 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Drug Addiction | Family Relationships | Alcoholism | Actor | Playwright

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Laurence Olivier	...	James Tyrone Sr.
Constance Cummings	...	Mary Tyrone
Denis Quilley	...	James 'Jamie' Tyrone Jr.
Ronald Pickup	...	Edmund Tyrone
Maureen Lipman	...	Cathleen

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

National Theatre of Great Britain Production

Trivia:

The Broadway play by Eugene O'Neill opened at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York on November 7, 1956, ran for 390 performances and won the 1957 Tony Award for the Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1957.

Movie Connections:

Version of Eines langen Tages Reise in die Nacht (1973) (TV)

Not Compelling in the least...

Sorry to disagree, but I found this production very disappointing. Almost unwatchable. One of the most verbose plays ever written, but even aside from that, as the reviewer states above, this version is extremely stage-bound, and the actors, even Olivier, deliver substandard performances. Constance Cummings is definitely no Katherine Hepburn, not only judged by her weak portrayal here, but by her similarly spotty career. The best that can be said of the actors who play the sons is that they certainly look like they could be brothers in real life. The story may have been difficult for O'Neil to write, and scandalous when it was first performed, but it's now incredibly dated. They fight, they make up, they tell stories of the past, they fight again, then make up, and on and on. Redundant to the nth degree. The earlier, and in some versions, shorter 1962 version is far superior to this seemingly unending production. Just my two cents.