The Long Voyage Home
Directed by John Ford
Adapted for the screen by Dudley Nichols based on the “Four Seas” plays by Eugene O’Neill
1940/USA
Argosy Pictures/Walter Wanger Productions
First viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
[box] Donkeyman: Best thing to do with memories is… forget em.[/box]
Alfred Hitchcock was not the only director with two Best Picture nominees in 1940. It took me this long to catch up with John Ford’s other masterpiece of the year.
The story is basically a series of vignettes as could be expected from the source material – four different plays from early in Eugene O’Neill’s career. These are woven together by an ongoing thread of sailor Ole Oleson’s (John Wayne) oft frustrated efforts to leave the sea and get home to his mother’s farm. The merchant ship is carrying a load of ammunition to England during the war. We get a “going away party” with some Carribean women, a violent storm at sea, bombing of the ship by an enemy plane, and the saga of an alcoholic (Ian Hunter) who is mistaken for a spy. With a fantastic ensemble cast including Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfred Lawson, Mildred Natwick, John Qualen, Ward Bond, and Arthur Shields. The other star of this film is Gregg Toland’s phenomenal cinematography.
Like in Stagecoach, John Wayne is thought of as the star of this film and he does well as a quiet naive Swede, blessedly with very little dialogue. But the most memorable performances in a cast of very gifted actors come from Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, and Ian Hunter. The scene in which Mitchell reads a letter written to the helpless Hunter while the rest of the crew looks on is truly moving.
This movie had me hooked by the end of the dialogue-free opening sequence as each of the men listen to the sounds of women’s singing floating out to their ship from a nearby island. The shots reveal the character of each sailor with masterful economy and beauty. And then we go on to the poetic language of loneliness, comradeship, and fear that makes up the rest of the piece. This is the kind of discovery that makes me glad to be doing this exercise. Very highly recommended.
The Long Voyage Home was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Black and White Cinematography (Gregg Toland), Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, and Best Original Score (Richard Hageman).
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