Film Friday: 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' starring Katharine Hepburn

Eugene O'Neill was one of the great American playwrights of the first half of the 20th Century. One of his greatest contributions to the American theater though, wasn't published until after his death in 1953. That was Long Day's Journey Into Night, an autobiographical descent into one family's hell. While the four characters in the play are on a journey just to make it to night, the audience is taken on their own journey into the blackest of bleak hearts.

First published in 1956 and the winner of the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Long Day's Journey Into Night is a challenging masterpiece. It takes place over the course of one day in the life of the Tyrone family. The patriarch, James, was a once-promising actor who focused on making money rather than pushing himself. His wife, Mary once hoped to be a nun, but fell in love with James after his father introduced them. Their oldest son, Jamie, has lived off his father's money his entire life. Edmund, their youngest, tried to make good and traveled all around the world, only to return home to be diagnosed with consumption.

All four have their demons, their dashed hopes and crumbled lives. The men are alcoholics and Mary is addicted to dope. They live in an isolated summer home, with no friends and virtually no contact with the outside world. They have closed themselves off, living like caged animals at each others' throats.

While Long Day's doesn't exactly scream filmable material, producer Joseph E. Levine (who is better known for bankrolling movies like The Lion In Winter, The Graduate and – most bizarrely of them all – Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt) bought the film rights. He wisely hired director Sidney Lumet, who really needed a project to reestablish himself after a few years of panned movies following 12 Angry Men. Lumet brought on cinematographer Boris Kaufman, who worked 12 Angry Men and On The Waterfront, and they figured out how to make Long Day's work without opening it up.

That alone makes Long Day's one of the most unique film adaptations of a play. Typically, claustrophobic plays are opened up for film, with new scenes added or scenes moved to different locations. Instead, Lumet opted to adapt O'Neill's masterpiece word-for-word and that included setting the entire movie within the house.

Indeed, Lumet didn't hire a screenwriter to make the play “filmable.” It's like a football coach trusting his defense to stop a high-powered offense. Here, Lumet realized that he had to trust himself to find the best actors for all four parts to keep an audience entertained for all three hours. He just knew how to find the best cast, starting with convincing Katherine Hepburn to return to films. She hadn't made a movie since 1959's Suddenly, Last Summer (another film adaptation of a play), but even she had to know that Mary could only be played on the big screen by her.

Hepburn brings out the fragility in the role, which is even more painful to see. After watching her in countless movies as the woman who never gives in, it is more powerful to see her in such a role that asks her to be the opposite. Mary is expected to be the family's strong point, but she suffers even more than the men. Kaufman's intense close-ups on Hepburn are the most powerful images of the film, because they show a side of her we so rarely see in her best work.

But while Hepburn breaks into pieces, there are three men desperately trying to put her back together. Ralph Richardson plays James as a tender man, finally realizing that he never really did achieve his dream. He is the most reactive character in Long Day's, giving Richardson – who was already knighted by 1962 – the opportunity to play with his face. The actor finds new ways to respond to each jab he takes from his younger co-stars, but never feeling out of place. There's no sense that Richardson is acting in a different movie, which could happen (and did) in '60s movies with actors from different generations.

The younger stars in this film give truly scorching performances. Dean Stockwell, who remains one of the few child actors in the history of cinema ever to successfully transition to adult roles, is acting like he's got something to prove. His confrontations with Richardson and Hepburn make it clear that he was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Jason Robards, who spent his life playing Long Day's on stage, announces himself as one of America's great actors. He brings a naturalistic approach to playing Jamie, the boy who never grew up.

What makes O'Neill's play and the film a true masterpiece is how cyclical it is. Moments in the characters lives are recalled by different characters in different ways. All four get a chance to air their grievances to each other, so that no repeated story feels the same. It makes Long Day's a sprint more than a long marathon. The audience as embedded in the Tyrone home, stuck as guests who are never able to leave. We certainly want to, but the successive car crashes happening on screen makes it difficult.

Audiences today might find Long Day's a bore, arguing that it's just a filmed stage play. And sure, Lumet gets a bit pretentious with his framing, trying to obviously squeeze meanings out of each shot. Yet, Long Day's is still a masterpiece, Lumet's first since 12 Angry Men and one of his best – even when one considers Network and Serpico. Edmund refers to the family as “The Fog People,” but they are only enshrouded by clouds to themselves. O'Neill and Lumet make these characters clear to the audience though, making it one of the most devastating works of the stage and cinema.

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