Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)

93% of critics liked it
(15 reviews)
82% of users liked it
(2,843 ratings)

Playwright Eugene O'Neill sold Random House the text of his intensely autobiographical 1941 play on the proviso that the play not be produced during O'Neill's lifetime. Two years after the playwright's death in 1953, the play was given its first Broadway staging and won a Pulitzer Prize. Set in 1912… More Playwright Eugene O'Neill sold Random House the text of his intensely autobiographical 1941 play on the proviso that the play not be produced during O'Neill's lifetime. Two years after the playwright's death in 1953, the play was given its first Broadway staging and won a Pulitzer Prize. Set in 1912 New England, the story takes place in the summer home of aging actor James Tyrone (Ralph Richardson) and his family. Tyrone, patterned after Eugene O'Neill's father James O'Neill, has long abandoned any aspirations to be a truly great actor, choosing instead to tour in the same weary stage vehicle year after year. Thanks to an earlier act of stinginess on Tyrone's part, his wife Mary has turned into a rambling morphine addict, with little or no contact with reality. Oldest son Jamie is a troublemaking alcoholic, envious of the writing talent of sickly younger brother Edmund (the Eugene O'Neill counterpart). The long's day journey concludes with a hellish night in which the three Tyrone men sit about drunkenly as Mary Tyrone hallucinates about her younger, happier days. Katharine Hepburn emerged from a three-year retirement to essay the back-breaking role of Mary Tyrone; Ralph Richardson exhumed all the "ham" of his student-actor days to portray the pathetic James Tyrone; Jason Robards Jr., a man seemingly put on this earth to interpret O'Neill, repeats his Broadway role as Jamey; and Dean Stockwell adds one more superb characterization to his gallery of portrayals as the tubercular Edmund. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 54 min.
Directed By: Sidney Lumet
Written By: Eugene O'Neill
Genres: Drama, Classics

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1962 Wide
On DVD: May 11, 2004
Studio: Republic Pictures Home Video

Critic Reviews

Bosley Crowther, New York Times
For what they have set out to do, Mr. Lumet and the producer, Ely Landau, have given us a fine, fair picture of a tough and maybe tedious O'Neill play.
Wesley Lovell, Oscar Guy
An adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's legendary play results in a stage-bound production lifted by grand performances, including the delightful Katharine Hepburn.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Faithful to the award winning play.
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
O'Neill's play transformed beautifully into Hepburn, Robards vehicle.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Lumet's film of O'Neill's masterpiece is one of the most faithful and well-executed screen adaptations ever due to Boris Kaufman's landmark cinematography and superlative ensemble of Ralph Richardson, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards and Dean Stockwell.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
By the end of this, you're part of the family. Welcome to hell.

Read all 6 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Tim S

Extremely well acted filmed version of the Eugene O'Neill play. The problem is that there is so much going on and so much character drama that it is a little draining. It's like Magnolia if it was still three hours and happened at one house. Jason Robards is fantastic and I… More
Extremely well acted filmed version of the Eugene O'Neill play. The problem is that there is so much going on and so much character drama that it is a little draining. It's like Magnolia if it was still three hours and happened at one house. Jason Robards is fantastic and I loved the stuff between him and Dean Stockwell who is also great. Hepburn has her moments, but some of it seems overacting to say the least. Interesting because it's one of Lumet's first and the camera movement keeps you interested.
Veronique K

"long day's journey into night" is faithfully adapted from eugene o'neill's semi-autobiographical play which is also his greatest work alive, and it deepens further upon katherine hepburn's prestige as a versatile accomplished actress since she again… More
"long day's journey into night" is faithfully adapted from eugene o'neill's semi-autobiographical play which is also his greatest work alive, and it deepens further upon katherine hepburn's prestige as a versatile accomplished actress since she again receives academy award nomination for it. frequently i tackle into the issue of purist notion of dialogue-driven movies as the supreme essence of cinema, and "long day's journey into night" would be a perfect exemplification with a masterful script as well as its refined stagy casting. but the film lacks public appeal due to its thick element of constant dialogue-focus as well as its unflattering 3 hour screen time, to enable the film's production, hepburn had to reduce her own payment for this exasperatingly heavy role, and she made it but under one condition: the movie has to be meticulously devout to its original play. the story's basically about the collapse of a problematic family addled with morphine addiction, alcoholism, capitalist money-slavery, unreconciled pessismism upon death gravitated by consumption illness. the sceneries whirl around the haunting phatom of past memories as the fog forshadows every misery into the belligerent darkness of nightmarish hell, each character imprisioned by his/her tragic flaws and the unredeemed mistakes made in the past. dean stockwell who plays the youngest son inflicted with consumption demonstrates an amazing horrowingly melancholic attribute which could emulate james dean, whose youthful good looks inspires your ideal personification of a depressed poet once as he frowns. the flick has a strong claustrophic atmosphere with fixed backset and four steady actors constantly upstaging each other with the uncanny puncturality. if you're a cinema purist with a virtue of patience to read into dialogues, "long day's journey into night" would be a gem to elaborate your mind's empathetic capacity for life's poetic sorrow of dacadence.
Jennifer X

It's so engrossing but EXHAUSTING to watch. It's good but I probably wouldn't watch it again because it made me so depressed during the entire three hours. Lumet is NO STOPS, man.
jay n

Dark, powerfully acted film, long but worthwhile.
Alec B

Since the film is based on one of the the finest plays ever written, it would have at least been decent, but Sidney Lumet created a near masterpiece. It might be Katharine Hepburn's finest hour dramatically and the rest of the cast is just as equally fantastic.
matt s

You watch this one for just the great performances and monologues, but it can get grating with all the nonstop talking. I would've like a it more brevity and emotion rather than just talking it out, but, you have to consider the source as well. This is a play about people how… More
You watch this one for just the great performances and monologues, but it can get grating with all the nonstop talking. I would've like a it more brevity and emotion rather than just talking it out, but, you have to consider the source as well. This is a play about people how only hint at their emotions and always rationalize.
Sunil J

Another drama about family that's a little upsetting but pretty good.