RKO made a brave foray into difficult-to-sell movie country with this interesting Dudley Nichol's (The Long Voyage Home '40) adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's scorching study of a New England Family's extended fall from grace! All the shame, forbidden longings and ensuring tragedy are unravelled as these, at times, shameless family members wreak emotional havoc upon each other. O'Neil's studied dialogue and characters turn each other's lives inside out while he makes his rather obvious attack on the morays of some of New England's well-to-do social elite. O'Neil's observations on primitive islanders and their attitudes towards free love are somewhat simplified in his own search for sexual enlightenment but, he perhaps overlooks the code of ethics that even these primitive folk also eventually need to live by. The fabric of family bonds and respect are never far removed from solid sexual unions in any social structures.
The excellent handpicked international cast work hard delivering the barbed and biting vitriol that flows from O'Neil's pen and Dudley Nichol's expert direction guides them unfalteringly towards their inescapable fates. Veteran director of photography George Barnes (Rebecca '40) gives it all a classy look. After being hidden away in forgotten vaults - I've waited many decades for this film to make its way onto DVD and can probably recommend it to those who have the patience to stay with its earnest treatment of the involving subject matter. At 2 ½ + Hrs it covers many emotional entanglements along the way.
The excellent handpicked international cast work hard delivering the barbed and biting vitriol that flows from O'Neil's pen and Dudley Nichol's expert direction guides them unfalteringly towards their inescapable fates. Veteran director of photography George Barnes (Rebecca '40) gives it all a classy look. After being hidden away in forgotten vaults - I've waited many decades for this film to make its way onto DVD and can probably recommend it to those who have the patience to stay with its earnest treatment of the involving subject matter. At 2 ½ + Hrs it covers many emotional entanglements along the way.