Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)

Eugene O'Neill's updated version of the Oresteia set in New England, after the American Civil War.

Director:

Dudley Nichols

Writer:

Eugene O'Neill (play)

Stars:

Rosalind Russell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Massey

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rosalind Russell	...	Lavinia Mannon
Michael Redgrave	...	Orin Mannon
Raymond Massey	...	Brig. Gen. Ezra Mannon
Katina Paxinou	...	Christine Mannon
Leo Genn	...	Adam Brant
Kirk Douglas	...	Peter Niles
Nancy Coleman	...	Hazel Niles
Henry Hull	...	Seth Beckwith
Sara Allgood	...	Adam Brant's Landlady
Thurston Hall	...	Dr. Blake
Walter Baldwin	...	Amos Ames
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Mrs. Hills
Erskine Sanford	...	Josiah Borden
Jimmy Conlin	...	Abner Small
Lee Baker	...	Reverend Hills

Storyline

Eugene O'Neill's updated version of the Oresteia. In New England, after the American Civil War, a war-weary Agamemnon, Ezra Mannon comes home to his unhappy wife (Christine) and loving daughter (Lavinia). But Lavinia's ex-suitor, Adam Brant, has become Christine's lover, and together Adam and Christine plot to poison Ezra. When they succeed, Lavinia turns to her brother Orin to help bring the lovers to justice, but when they succeed, Orin goes mad and his suicide note may come between Lavinia and her new suitor, Peter Niles.

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Plot Keywords:

new england | poison | marriage | captain | suicide | 

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Taglines:

The Most Sinister Triangle In Dramatic History!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 November 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra

Filming Locations:

RKO Encino Ranch - Balboa Boulevard & Burbank Boulevard, Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$435,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

173 min 105 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dudley Nichols disclaimed screenplay credit because he only abridged the play's text and moved some scenes outdoors. His first finished cut ran over four hours, but was edited down to 174 minutes for its roadshow premiere.

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Goofs

While Orin is standing by a bench where Lavinia is seated, he holds his hat by his side and drops it. It just lies there on the dirt path as he sits down, and he doesn't pick it up.

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Quotes

Orin Mannon: You folks at home take death so solemnly. You have to learn to mock or go crazy.

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Alternate Versions

This is (unfortunately) usually shown on television in a heavily cut 105-minute version. The 159-minute UK version can sometimes be seen on Turner Classic Movies.

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Connections

Version of Le deuil sied à Electre (1974)

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Soundtracks

Oh Shenandoah
(uncredited)
Traditional sea chantey
Sung over credits and throughout film by unidentified male chorus

User Reviews

A Film That Transcends Its Own Flaws

The script reduces the stage original by approximately two-thirds. The cinematography is clunky and the production values are weak. Direction is indifferent and the acting styles are all over the map. Even so, the 1947 MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA is a startlingly powerful film, a melodrama that leaps and crackles and which will hold the attention of discerning viewers through two and a half hours to its remarkably bitter end.

Loosely based on the ancient Greek tragedy THE ORESTIA, Eugene O'Neill's 1931 drama was and is an extraordinary creation. Strangely ritualistic in tone and requiring approximately six hours to perform, it stunned audiences upon its debut, was a powerful factor in O'Neill's winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and remains one of the great pinnacles of American theatre to this day. It is also a warped, sick, and twisted tale of adultery, incestuous affections, blackmail, murder, and suicide, and as such it held Hollywood at bay for close to twenty years.

The story concerns the Mannons, a family that has dominated a small New England town for more than a hundred years, dominating through social status and supposed family and civic duty even as they conceal several internal scandals. The film opens with father Ezra (Raymond Massey) away from home, acting as a leader in the Civil War; in his absence wife Christine (Katrina Patinoux) has taken a lover who visits the house under the guise of courting daughter Lavinia (Rosalind Russell.) When Lavinia discovers the truth, she attempts to blackmail her mother into giving up the relationship--but the attempt backfires into a horrendous cycle of murder and revenge that ultimately destroys the family and drives Lavinia to her her doom.

The script actually does manage to encompass all the primary plot points of O'Neill's original, and although the result is a bit talky in a forced sort of way the story itself possesses a relentless quality that does indeed approximate the stage original. Even more surprisingly, the script makes no effort to soften the incestuous nature of the various relationships that characterize the tale, relationships that increasingly pervert and twist the family as the story progresses. This is dark, dark stuff indeed.

As previously noted, the cast is all over the map in terms of acting style and indeed each of the principles seem to be performing for a different film. Rosalind Russell is distinctly "classic Hollywood;" Michael Redgrave is distinctly "English theatre." Katrina Patinoux, a memorable performer, is Greek and therefore somewhat out of place as the matriarch of a New England family; Raymond Massey, an equally memorable performer, seems to reprise his earlier portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Each and every one of them, in their own different ways, play at white-hot intensity, and many find the resulting mix too uncomfortable. I myself did not: if anything, I felt it added to and intensified the overall strangeness of the piece.

Eugene O'Neill dramas do not, as a rule, film extremely well: they are too clearly designed for the stage and as such they work best in front of a live audience. All the same, and in spite of its numerous flaws, this is one of the few film versions of an O'Neill play that actually manages to capture the intensity of the stage original. Dark, brooding, and deeply disturbing, MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA deserves a great deal more attention than it has ever received.

When the film failed at the box office, RKO responded by cutting it in re-release. This Image Entertainment DVD restores those cuts, and that is a very good thing indeed. Unfortunately, it is also the only good thing that one can say for the DVD. The print quality is at best mediocre, a bit fuzzy, occasionally streaked, and riddled with artifacts. There are no extras of any kind. But just as the film transcends its own flaws, so too does it transcends this poor transfer. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer