He began adapting classic plays for both film and television, directing Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward and Anna Magnani in the feature film "The Fugitive Kind" (1959), based on the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending". He later directed a live television version of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", which was followed by his film, "A View from the Bridge" (1962), another psychological drama from the play written by Arthur Miller. This was followed by another Eugene O'Neill play turned to cinema, "Long Day's Journey into Night" (also 1962), with Katharine Hepburn gaining an Oscar nomination for her performance as a drug-addicted housewife; the four principal actors swept the acting awards at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. It was also voted one of the year's "Ten Best Films" by "The New York Times".