Themes: Treacherous Spouses, Military Life, War At Sea
Main Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfred Lawson
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
John Ford welded four of Eugene O'Neill's one-act plays about the sea, Bound East for Cardiff, The Long Voyage Home, The Zone, and Moon of the Caribees, into this melancholy film about wayfaring seamen, changing the setting from the turn of the century to WWII. This was O'Neill's favorite of the films based on his work, and he watched it often enough to eventually wear out his print. After a night of revelry in the West Indies, the crew of the SS Glencairn return to the tramp steamer and set sail for Baltimore. They're a varied lot, from middle-aged Irishman Driscoll (Thomas Mitchell), to the young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), to the brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter). After the ship picks up a load of dynamite in Baltimore, the rough seas they encounter become especially nerve-racking to the crew, who are also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Review
Among John Ford's finest films, The Long Voyage Home is notable chiefly for the work of the great cinematographer Gregg Toland. The director admired Toland so much that he allowed him a free hand behind the camera, and the cameraman used the film to try out new lenses that would allow for greater depth of focus, lenses that he would also use on his next film, the historic Citizen Kane (1941). Like that masterpiece, this is also one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made, stunning in its angular expressionism, arresting wide-angled close-ups, and enveloping chiaroscuro. It's a style well-suited to this bleak, episodic tale of seafaring life, which for O'Neill and Ford is a metaphor for loneliness. Between the grueling, sometimes frightening months at sea, and the brief respite of whoring and drinking in port, the film depicts a grim way of life, and it's a small victory when the crew are able to return one of their number to the land. Except for the miscasting of Wayne as a genial Swede, and mediocre work by Ward Bond, the cast is uniformly superb. John Qualen is particularly haunting and Mildred Natwick is memorable amidst the courtesan contingent. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Mildred Natwick - Freda; John Qualen - Axel Swanson; Ward Bond - Yank; Arthur Shields - Donkeyman; Joe Sawyer - Davis; J.M. Kerrigan - Limehouse crimp; Rafaela Ottiano - Tropical Woman; Billy Bevan - Joe, Limehouse barman; Danny Borzage - Tim; Bing Conley - Limehouse Roustabout; Carmen D'Antonio - Girls in Canoe; Lowell Drew - Blind Man; James Flavin - Dock Policeman; Constantin Frenke - Narvey; J. Warren Kerrigan; Guy Kingsford - London Policeman; Elena Martinez - Bumboat Girl; Cyril McLaglen - First Mate; Art Miles - Captain of Amindra; Carmen Morales - Bumboat Girl; Lionel Pape - Mr. Clifton; Robert Perry - Paddy; Constantine Romanoff - Big Frank; Lee Shumway - Dock Policeman; Wyndham Standing - British Naval Officer; Sammy Stein - Seaman; Harry Tenbrook - Max; Douglas Walton - Young 2nd Mate on 'Glencairn'; Blue Washington - Cook; David Hilary Hughes - Scotty; Jack Pennick - Johnny Bergman; Harry Woods - First Mate of Amindra; Judith Linden - Bumboat Girl; Tina Menard - Bumboat Girl; Leslie Sketchley - London Policeman; Lita Cortez; Jane Crowley - Kate; Ky Robinson - Limehouse Roustabout; Maureen Roden-Ryan - Mag
Credit
John Ford - Director, Sherman Todd - Editor, Richard Hageman - Composer (Music Score), Eddie Paul - Musical Direction/Supervision, James Basevi - Production Designer, Gregg Toland - Cinematographer, Walter Wanger - Producer, Julia Heron - Set Designer, R.O. Binger - Special Effects, Jack Noyes - Sound/Sound Designer, Dudley Nichols - Screenwriter, Eugene O'Neill - Play Author
The film was adapted by Dudley Nichols from the plays The Moon of the Caribees, In The Zone, Bound East for Cardiff, and The Long Voyage Home by Eugene O'Neill. The original plays by Eugene O'Neill were written around the time of World War I and were among his earliest plays. Ford set the story for the motion picture, however, during World War II.[2]
The picture tells the story of the crew and passengers aboard a freighter.
The film tells the story of the crew aboard an English cargo ship named the SS Glencairn, during World War II, on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The ship carries a cargo of high-explosives.
On liberty, after a night of drinking in bars in the West Indies, the crew returns to the tramp steamer and set sail for Baltimore.
After the ship picks up a load of dynamite in Baltimore, the rough seas they encounter become nerve-racking to the crew.
They're also concerned that Smitty might be a Germanspy because he's secretive. After they force Smitty to show them his letters from home it turns out that Smitty is an alcoholic who has run away from his family. When they near port a German plane attacks the ship, killing Smitty in a burst of machine gun fire. The rest of the crew members decide not to sign on for another voyage on the Glencairn and go ashore, determined to help Ole return to his family in Sweden who he has not seen in ten years. At a seedy bar Ole is tricked into taking a drugged drink and he is shanghaied aboard another ship, the Amindra. Driscoll and the rest of the crew rescue him from the ship, but Driscoll is accidentally left behind in the confusion. As the crew straggles back to the Glencairn the next morning to sign on for another voyage, they learn that the Amindra was sunk by German torpedoes, killing all on board.
Critic Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, liked the screenplay, the message of the film, and John Ford's direction, and wrote, "John Ford has truly fashioned a modern Odyssey—a stark and tough-fibered motion picture which tells with lean economy the never-ending story of man's wanderings over the waters of the world in search of peace for his soul...it is harsh and relentless and only briefly compassionate in its revelation of man's pathetic shortcomings. But it is one of the most honest pictures ever placed upon the screen; it gives a penetrating glimpse into the hearts of little men and, because it shows that out of human weakness there proceeds some nobility, it is far more gratifying than the fanciest hero-worshiping fare."[3]
The staff at Variety magazine wrote, "Combining dramatic content of four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays, John Ford pilots adventures of a tramp steamer from the West Indies to an American port, and then across the Atlantic with cargo of high explosives. Picture is typically Fordian, his direction accentuating characterizations and adventures of the voyage."[4]
Critic Dennis Schwartz appreciated the acting ensemble in the film and wrote, "The film was too stagebound to be effective cinema, but it scores points in its unsentimental portrait of the loser life of the lonely and desperate merchant seamen. These same misfits, who don't fit the image of heroes, nevertheless come through as men who do their duty when the chips are down and prove they will fight for their country even though it's not necessarily for patriotic reasons."[5]
Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Black-and-White Cinematography, Gregg Toland; Best Special Effects, R.T. Layton (photographic), Ray Binger (photographic) and Thomas T. Moulton (sound); Best Film Editing, Sherman Todd; Best Original Score, Richard Hageman; Best Picture, John Ford; Best Screenplay Writing, Dudley Nichols; 1941.
Influence on other works of art
Phil Ochs composed his song "Pleasures of the Harbor" after watching a 1966 revival cinema screening of the film at a Los Angeles theater. The song became the title track of Ochs' first album for A&M Records in October 1967.
^Steeman, Albert. Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers, "Gregg Toland page," Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2007. Last accessed: January 18, 2008.
^Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, "The Long Voyage Home, Magnificent Drama of the Sea," October 9, 1940. Last accessed: January 18, 2008
^Variety. Film review, October 9, 1940. Last accessed: January 18, 2008.
^Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, review, September 8, 2005. Last accessed: January 18, 2008.
