Themes: Mothers and Sons, Self-Destructive Romance, Infidelity
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Alexander Kirkland, Ralph Morgan, Robert Young
Release Year: 1932
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
A remarkably smooth 110-minute adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's marathon eight-hour play, Strange Interlude was advertised as "the picture in which you hear the characters think," a nod to O'Neill's technique of having the characters speak their innermost thoughts out loud between dialogue passages (on-stage, the actors stood stock still while delivering their soliloquies; in the film, their thoughts are heard on the soundtrack). Norma Shearer plays Nina Leeds, who during WWI is talked out of marrying her soldier sweetheart, Gordon Shaw (Robert Young), by her professor father (Henry B. Walthall). When Gordon dies two days before the Armistice, the embittered Nina rebels against her father, escaping his dominance by marrying faithful Sam Evans (Alexander Kirkland). Upon discovering that there is a strain of insanity in the Evans family, Nina, desperate to have children, enters into a romance with Dr. Ned Darrell (Clark Gable). She bears his child, a son named Gordon (Tad Alexander as a child, Robert Young as an adult), assuring Evans that the baby is his. Gordon grows up idolizing Evans and despising Darrell, even though the boy is unaware of the circumstances of his birth or his true parentage. Her love for her son bordering on the obsessive, Nina does everything she can to dominate the boy even into adulthood, trying to scare away her son's fiancée, Madeline (Maureen O'Sullivan), by bringing up the insanity issue. Hoping to make up for past misdeeds, Darrell orders Nina to stop poisoning Madeline's mind against Gordon. By the time Evans suffers a fatal heart attack, Nina and Darrell have lost whatever love they shared between them. Through it all, Charlie Marsden (Ralph Morgan), a family friend who has long harbored an unrequited love for Nina, stands on the sidelines vicariously living his life through Nina and Darrell. Of necessity severely cut due to time and censorial constrictions, Strange Interlude still manages to distill the essence of the O'Neill play in its comparatively brief running time. The film's major flaw can also be found in the original play: though the characters age only 25 years or so in the course of the story, by the film's end they are seen doddering around like nonagenarians. The "speaking one's thoughts" gimmick in Strange Interlude was parodied in such comedy films as Animal Crackers, Me and My Gal, So This Is Africa, and even the Walter Catlett two-reeler Get Along Little Hubby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Modern audiences will likely find Strange Interlude a very odd duck, indeed. The Eugene O'Neill play that is its basis is highly problematic on its own; condensing its eight and a half hours to 110 minutes is bound to create additional problems, and when one adds in the "interior monologue" device for which the work is famous, it's amazing that the film works at all. Unfortunately, the necessary cutting takes a very serious play and reduces it to its bare essentials -- leaving it little more than a soap opera, albeit one blessed with some dialogue passages of great beauty and poetry. But since these passages are presented in a straightforward, stagey manner, rather than truly reconceived for the screen, they too often lack the desired impact. The voice-over device simply doesn't work, especially for modern audiences for whom the idea of a voice-over is no longer unusual. The cast works hard, but not always successfully. Norma Shearer's performance is strong but uneven; in this truncated version, she's asked to display great emotional heights that are not properly built up or justified, and Alexander Kirkland and Ralph Morgan also fall prey to overacting. Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan do better, but only Clark Gable really turns in an impressive performance, one that is both natural and moving. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Gordon Shaw was a flyer who was shot down and killed during World War I. Nina would have married him before he left, but her father forbade the marriage. Charlie is a friend, but Nina does not love him and he is too timid- too shy - to tell her the way that he feels about her. Sam is her husband and her love disappears after the ceremony when she finds out that there is mental illness in his family and that there can be no children. To have the child she wants, but cannot have with Sam, she has a secret affair with Ned, who wants her to leave Sam. Gordon is the result of the affair, but he does not know Ned is his real father. Nina continues to play with the emotions of all three men and devote herself only to Gordon.
The play originally opened on Broadway in New York City on January 30, 1928 with 426 performances. The lead characters were played by Lynn Fontanne and Glenn Anders, and the supporting cast included Helen Westley and Tom Powers. Because the play had 9 acts, it began in the afternoon, and concluded in the evening after an intermission for dinner. There were two Broadway revivals after the film was released.
The Silent Command •Heritage •Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings •Secret Love •The Crippled Hand •The Love Girl •Little Eve Edgarton •The Plow Girl •The Eagle's Wing (with Rufus Steele) •On Record •A Mormon Maid •The Primrose Ring •At First Sight •Princess Virtue •Face Value •The Bride's Awakening •Her Body in Bond •Modern Love •Danger, Go Slow •The Scarlet Shadow •The Delicious Little Devil •What Am I Bid? •Big Little Person •The Way of a Woman •The Miracle of Love
