THE MOST SHATTERING… SHOCKING JOURNEY THE SCREEN EVER TOOK INTO THE HUMAN SOUL!

In 1912, the Tyrone family grapple with addiction, illness and delusion as day turns to night in Monte Cristo Cottage, Connecticut.

The most classic screen adaptation of one of the most famous American plays in history follows it closely, with Jason Robards playing the alcoholic son, just as he did on stage, one essential part of a dynamite cast. Sidney Lumet may not do anything extraordinary in the transition to cinema, but it’s moving and darkly handsome, the play’s best moments skilfully highlighted by the filmmakers.

André Previn adds a sad but dramatic piano theme for the opening credits.

1962-U.S. 170 min. B/W. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Play: Eugene O’Neill. Cinematography: Boris Kaufman. Music: André Previn. Cast: Katharine Hepburn (Mary Tyrone), Ralph Richardson (James Tyrone), Jason Robards (Jamie Tyrone), Dean Stockwell (Edmund Tyrone), Jeanne Barr. 

Trivia: Marlon Brando was considered for the part of Jamie. The play was also filmed in 1996 and 2025.

Cannes: Best Actor (Richardson, Robards, Stockwell), Actress (Hepburn). 

Last word: “I’d had some dissatisfaction when I’d seen ‘Long Day’s Journey’ on the stage. I had felt O’Neill’s intent had not been realized. Also, the experience with ‘The Iceman Cometh’ had illustrated for me that there was a superb method of focusing the play through the use of the camera. This is not in any way to reduce its dimension. For me, it intensifies it by getting it specific. By pushing it very hard along one interpretive level, along one directed level, it assumed even greater size. ‘Iceman’ had shown me there was an ability to take tragedy and do it on a screen that was, in that instance, a small screen. It seemed to me the chances for an artistically complete thing were even increased by doing the screen version of ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’.” (Lumet, Film Quarterly)