The Long Voyage Home

Plot synopsis:
The film tells the story of the crew aboard a British tramp steamer named the SS Glencairn on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The crew is a motley, fun-loving, hard-drinking lot. Among them is their consensus leader, a middle-aged Irishman named Driscoll ("Drisk") (Thomas Mitchell), a young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), a spiteful steward nicknamed Cocky (Barry Fitzgerald), a brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter), and a burly, thoroughly dependable bruiser Davis (Joseph Sawyer), among others. The film opens on a sultry night in a port in the West Indies where the crew have been confined to their ship by order of the captain, yet they yearn as ever for an opportunity to drink and have fun with the ladies. Drisk has arranged to import a boat-load of local ladies, who along with baskets of fruit, have agreed to smuggle bottles of rum on board where, with the acquiescence of the captain, the crew carouse until a minor drunken brawl breaks out and the ladies are ordered off the ship and denied any of their promised compensation. The next day the ship sails to pick up its cargo for its return trip to England. When the crew discovers that the cargo is high explosives, they at first rebel and grumble among themselves that they won't crew the ship if it is carrying such a cargo. But they are easily cowed into submission by the captain and the ship sails, crossing the Atlantic and passing through what they all know is a war zone and potential disaster.
After the ship leaves Baltimore with its load of dynamite, the rough seas they encounter become nerve-racking to the crew. When the anchor breaks loose, Yank (Ward Bond) is injured in the effort to secure it. With no doctor on board, nothing can be done for his injury, and he dies.
They're also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy because he's so aloof and secretive. After they assault Smitty and restrain and gag him, they force him to give up the key to a small metal box they have found in his bunk which they at first think is a bomb. Opening the box against Smitty's vigorous protests, they discover a packet of letters. When Drisk reads a few, it becomes clear that they are letters from Smitty's wife revealing the fact that Smitty has been an alcoholic, disgraced and perhaps dishonorably discharged from his service with the British navy, and that he is now too ashamed to show himself before his family even though his wife urges him to come home. In the war zone as they near port, a German plane attacks the ship, killing Smitty in a burst of machine gun fire. Reaching England without further incident, 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, whom he has not seen in ten years.
In spite of their determination to help the simple, gullible Ole get on his ship for Stockholm, the crew is incapable of passing up the opportunity for a good time drinking and dancing in a seedy bar to which they have been lured by an agent for ships in port looking for crew members. He has his eye on Ole because he is the biggest and strongest of the lot. He drugs Ole's drink, and calls his confederates in to shanghai Ole aboard another ship, the Amindra. Driscoll and the rest of the crew, even though drunk and almost too late, rescue Ole from the Amindra, but Driscoll is clubbed and left on board as the crew makes its escape with Ole. The next morning, the crew straggles back somewhat dejectedly and resignedly to the Glencairn to sign on for another voyage. A newspaper headline reveals that the Amindra has been sunk in the Channel by German torpedoes, killing all on board.

Tags: cult, murder, violence

Review:
John Wayne is misleadingly top-billed ,presumably to bring in the crowds who thought they were going to see typical Wayne heroics in this one.He is actually part of an excellent ensemble cast in this film,which has seamlessly adapted by Dudley Nichols from a group of one-act plays by the great Eugene O'Neill.
The plays,written in the early 1900's,have been updated to take place during WW II,but the propaganda angle is very tastefully handled and almost non-existent;in fact,here Nichols and director John Ford show great respect for the integrity of O'Neill's plays.The cast is excellent,but Wayne actually hasn't got much to do in comparison with his other films,and this is a film of dialogue,not action.Perhaps that's why the previous reviewer found it interminable.
[John Wayne uses a Swedish (!) accent in this movie,which he actually does quite well--don't laugh!]  The most intense acting is done by Thomas Mitchell (Scarlett O'Hara's dad in "Gone With The Wind") and Barry Fitzgerald,who are actually the stars of the movie.And director John Ford shows us what a true master of his craft he is by equalling Hitchcock's accomplishment in "Lifeboat" in keeping the action confined to a small space without making it seem tiresome.
The back-and-white photography is stunningly good--the best American photography in a black-and-white 1940's American film,aside from "Citizen Kane",of course.John Wayne fans shouldn't pass this one up,and all non-fans should still enjoy this fine film..
The Long Voyage Home is a compilation film of four one act plays by Eugene O'Neill who some will argue is America's greatest dramatist.
The man who did the stitching together of O'Neill's work about the crew of the S.S. Glencairn is Dudley Nichols and presiding over it all is the direction of John Ford.Mr. Ford is usually someone who really puts an individual stamp on one of his movies.
In fact J.M. Kerrigan is playing almost the same part in this as he did in The Informer.One thing Ford always did was use the right kind of music to set the tone for a film.
That song expresses so well the longing of a whole bunch of rootless men to find some kind of stability in their lives.Eugene O'Neill spent many years at sea and the characters of these men on the S.S. Glencairn are drawn from his own youthful experience.
If you're any kind of depressed, The Long Voyage Home or any Eugene O'Neill is not good for your mental health.
Reportedly, John Ford's film of The Long Voyage Home was Eugene O'Neill's favorite of all filmed versions of his plays, and it is no task to see why.
This episodic collection of stories, taken from several short plays written by O'Neill and based on his own seafaring life, does what both O'Neill and Ford do best--unveil the poetry and tragedy of simple men.
John Wayne, in a supporting role, does quite well with an unusual part, a lonely Swedish sailor, and his accent is much better than he is usually given credit for.
Thomas Mitchell, who played Doc Washburn in Stagecoach, has a role that's as big as Wayne's in Voyage.
Mitchell and Wayne are probably the best known, but there are also Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, John Qualen, Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick, and many other great character actors.
His schtick is that he is a Swede who can't speak English well, so he is generally pretty quiet (Wayne can't muster the best Swedish accent, either, so that's kind of a good thing!).
Although The Searchers probably contains his best role, The Long Voyage Home would certainly be worth a major mention when talking about his career.
John Ford himself is just as much the star of The Long Voyage Home.
The Long Voyage Home (1940)Any movie with Gregg Toland behind the camera is worth watching, with an emphasis on the visual experience.
I falls right in the middle of this great stretch, and it has the revered John Ford directing, letting Toland do his thing, right from the first scene.This is a solid, sometimes moving, sometimes dramatic movie, for sure.
The dancing and fighting are filmed with Toland perfection, but it turns quickly to farce, or stereotype.Thomas Mitchell is a lively Irishman in his best form, and John Wayne is an improbable Swede, and doesn't stand out much from the bunch except toward the end, when he is a block of wood with a bad accent.
The story is a series of misunderstandings and friendships, but since the plot is made of four different Eugene O'Neill plays (from 20 years earlier), there is a little discontinuity to it all.All of this is set during that strange cusp between World War II beginning in Europe and the U.S. still not joining in.
What it does contain is excellent cinematography by Gregg Toland, superb direction by John Ford and a superior script based on the plays of Eugene O'Neill.
Can it be?"The Long Voyage Home" may fall just short of classic status, but it is one of Hollywood's most visually expressionistic films, a tone poem of shadow and light presented by director John Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland.
That is indeed the Duke himself, John Wayne, playing a Swedish hayseed named Ole Olsen who the other sailors aboard his ship want to see safely en route to home.
Why is Driscoll (Thomas Mitchell) so suspicious of that bartender?Pauline Kael once wrote up "Long Voyage Home" by way of addressing another film shot by Gregg Toland the following year, "Citizen Kane." Both Ford and "Kane" director Orson Welles took the unusual step of sharing their titles card with Toland, a show of respect for what Toland's eye brought to their films.
I'd say Toland brought more to "Long Voyage Home" than he did to "Kane," as every shot seems suffused with a tenseness and mood that at the very least speaks as eloquently to the drama on screen as any line of dialogue or actor's performance.That's true from the opening shot, a wordless pan shot of the Glencairn drifting across the water as women in the foreground gyrate sensuously to an unseen music.
It's a classic bit of expressionist ambiguity that, once established, carries through for the rest of the film.Take the case of Smitty, a fellow who no one can much figure out as he keeps to himself, at least until he is finally fingered as a likely German spy in a sequence that might appear contrived had not Nichols, Toland, and Hunter made it quite diabolically real.
Hunter also appears in "Adventures Of Robin Hood" as a similar figure of dual identities, and I won't make the mistake of underestimating him again.I only wish Thomas Mitchell, the Oscar winner from Ford's "Stagecoach" the previous year, had brought some restraint to his playing of Driscoll here.
It's not pretty, especially to those of us who have seen all three give better work.Wayne, however, is effective despite his dodgy accent, and it's interesting to see him in a film, just a year after his breakthrough in "Stagecoach," where he is presented to us as one of the gang, something of a follower and not a lone-wolf leader.
I don't normally associate Wayne with amiable go-alongness, but he carries it here.John Ford is pretty much the Shakespeare of cinema, effortlessly moving from comedy to tragedy within a single scene, and "Long Voyage Home," while not perfect, makes a strong case for his visionary mastery..
John Wayne as the Swede sailor Ole. It's strange that the best performance John Wayne ever gave on film was one that was not in a western, where he was not in the lead, and where he did not play, essentially, himself.
His tired face becomes poignant, his tall, forceful presence paints him as a gentle giant, rather than as the salt-of-the-earth cowboy he is best known for.If the opening shots -- the haunting island music, the wind making everything sway in the night air, the island women flirting with the sailors, the sailors flirting back -- doesn't hook you through the sheer force of ambiance alone, you probably won't like "The Long Voyage Home." If you're expecting an exciting sea adventure with the joe average John Ford job of direction, you'll be disappointed.
Splendid Ford movie about crew members aboard a merchant steamer attempting to get home in 1939.
The talented cast acts this excellent screen rendition of Eugene O'Neill's play (it's adapted from three of his one-act plays) about crew sailors aboard a freighter steamer called ¨Glencairn¨ carrying charge containing war-smuggling , TNT , explosives from US to England , at the beginning WWII .
At the ending terminates with an epilogue that states : 'Some men like Ole and the Driscolls come a and go and the others live and die and the Yanks and Smittys leave their memories- but for the others the long voyage never ends' .This dramatic film is a classic Ford , displaying his usual themes as strong issues in many films , such as emotionalism , partnership , friendship and unlovable camaraderie between the sailors .
Straightforward acting by John Wayne as a Swedish sailor named Ole , he was to star habitually for Ford after the director rose his career from B Western in ¨Poverty Row¨ productions , with his greatest hit , 'Stagecoach' .
There's magnificent secondary cast playing the seamen , as Thomas Mitchell as a sympathetic sailor , Ian Hunter as the drunk and unbalanced Smittys , Mildred Natwick as a swindler prostitute , Rafaela Ottiano as a tropical woman , Jack Pennick , a Ford's usual , among others .
One of the goals of the movie is to finally get John Wayne, an innocent Swedish man, off the boats and home to his old mother.
This one of John Ford's least self-conscious movies, there's no heavy Americana to deal with and he directs you to the heart of the story and the often drunken emotions of the sailors.
Beautifully shot film about the lives of a merchant ship's crew during World War II, adapted from four Eugene O'Neill plays.
John Ford's artful direction and Gregg Toland's arresting cinematography is some of the best work from either man, both film giants.
The excellent cast includes Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Arthur Shields, and John Qualen ("By golly!").
After reading O'Neill's The Long Voyage Home and Other Plays* for a drama-reading group, it was really interesting to see how the four one act plays were blended into a movie.
The movie box says, "O'Neill considered it the favorite of all his filmed works."  Reading then seeing was a great way to appreciate these very early plays of this important American playwright.(*Dover Thrift Editions, 1995).
It is so powerful and I agree with those who comment on the strength of Wayne's performance, not one false note as he works with one of the finest casts assembled by John Ford (his scenes with M.
The movie could serve as a representation for America as a country at the time of the film's release -- not directly involved in a war that one way or another was going to have a huge impact on it regardless.John Ford gives the film a melancholy and even rather eerie vibe, helped in no small part by Gregg Toland's cinematography.
Something about the movie remains deeply unsatisfying, even if one can appreciate the artistry that went into it.John Wayne is now given top billing for this film, but he's part of a large ensemble cast without a real star.
And oh my goodness, no one should have asked him to try a Swedish accent."The Long Voyage Home" was nominated for six Oscars, though it went home empty handed: Outstanding Production, Best Screenplay (Dudley Nichols), Best Cinematography (B&W), Best Film Editing (Sherman Todd), Best Original Score (Richard Hageman), and Best Special Effects (R.T. Layton, R.O. Binger, and Thomas T.
This film presents John Wayne in a totally different kind of role.
Made just after "Stagecoach", Wayne is cast as a Swedish merchant seaman who is trying to go home to Sweden.
This is just an average John Ford film and he made a lot better movies than this one.
This movie has a great cast that stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond and Barry Fitzgerald.
The director-actor partnership of John Ford and John Wayne was famous for producing many films.
This is the one they made after their breakthrough western Stagecoach (1939), the movie which made Wayne a star, while cementing Ford's reputation as one of the top directors in Hollywood.
The use of deep-focus in that movie, along with the sterling cinematography contributing considerably to its all-time classic status; so the experiments that Toland tried in The Long Voyage Home have to be considered pretty significant as a dry run for the Orson Welles classic.
John Ford combined four of Eugene O'Neill stories into this film.
Known mostly as a cowboy at this stage in his career, and later as a soldier, here he plays Ole - a Swedish sailor on a British merchant marine vessel in the early days of World War II.
That status probably belong to Thomas Mitchell as Ole's Irish shipmate Driscoll.Most of this movie is set on board ship and generally the shipboard scenes are not bad in terms of realism.
While it was mildly interesting to see so many of the character actors who have often been associated with John Wayne films, this particular one is a boring, plodding waste of time.
No action, no real character development - and John Wayne trying a Swedish accent?
Based on plays by Eugene O'Neill, this drama focuses on a group of sailors on a ship during the war.
It is so lovely in its typically John Fordian human charm, augmented by the very atmospheric photography, which sometimes touches on expressionistic magic, while all the characters are successes, from the naive Swede (John Wayne), his sad buddy John Qualen (Axel), Thomas Mitchell in one of his best performances ever (and he was always good), Wilfrid Lawson as the harsh but able captain, Ian Hunter as the tragedy of Smitty, Barry Fitzgerald doing his expert fool's part as the steward, and so on.
This must be John Ford's most lyrical film, it is almost soft in its outbursts of sentimentality now and then, so alien to the rough lives of sailors and in wartime at that, but it is impossible to imagine this story and these characters in any harder realism.
But apart from this, there are a lot of great characters such as the Yank (Ward Bond), Drisk (Thomas Mitchell) and Smitty (Ian Hunter).
The one person in the film I really DID have trouble categorizing is Ole Olsen (John Wayne).
So take the time to watch this interesting John Wayne movie..
This movie is the dark side of "The Quiet Man," except that John Wayne's role is very small here.
First, there are about a dozen actors in this movie who later were in supporting roles in The Quiet Man. However, John Ford had not figured out what to do with these wonderful character actors to make them shine in this film.
John Ford directed a very interesting film with all kinds of suspense along with the story written by the famous Eugene O'Neill.
John Wayne, (Ole Olsen) plays the role of a Swedish seaman who wants to make this voyage on the Glencairn his last, because he wants to go home to his mother's farm near Stockholm, Sweden.
Wayne does not play a very big role in this film in spite of the fact he has star billing.
This is the movie to show anybody who doesn't believe John Wayne could be a great actor.
John Wayne stars in this film as Ole, a Swedish sailor who has not seen his family in over 10 years.
It was interesting seeing John Wayne in a movie where he is not a cowboy because that's what he is mostly know for.
The best 'Non Western Movie' with John Wayne.
My first ever Ford/Wayne film.
Maybe one of the reasons this is less successful than most of the other movies John Ford was directing about this time is that the other productions were so darned good.
"The Long Voyage Home" isn't without interest but it doesn't measure up to the rest of Ford's work.
Based on a couple of Eugene O'Neill's short plays, it gives us four patched-together stories: a drunken brawl aboard a small freighter in a Caribbean port, the death of a crew member (Yank, Ward Bond) and his funeral, the heroic redemption of Smitty the suspected spy, and the heroic struggle of a handful of inebriated men to get Ole (John Wayne) aboard a ship for home in the face of temptation.I haven't read that much of Eugene O'Neill's work and seen little of it performed but I get the impression his plays are, by necessity, largely literary works involving a kind of pointillism in which secrets and character traits are revealed little by little, mostly through dialog about psychology.
Director John Ford gathers friends as writer Dudley Nichol distills four classic Eugene O'Neill one-act plays into a very interesting tale of men at sea.
John Wayne plays Ole, a young Swede that decides to take his pay and sail home to his family's farm.
The cast is a who's who featuring: Barry Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, John Qualen, Ian Hunter and Joe Sawyer..
John Wayne hardly spoke for over an hour in the film, and his one scene is stolen with perfection by none other than Mildred Natwick, with that wonderful British accent.A tale of the merchant marines.
. so THE LONG VOYAGE HOME serves as a vehicle for strident Irish-American director John Ford to vent his spleen against Great Britain.
Anyone who has seen Barry Fitzgerald or John Wayne act in other movies will be amazed at how little Mr. Ford elicits from the pair here.