The Long Voyage Home (1940)

BACKGROUND
 

The Long Voyage Home combines several one act Eugene O'Neal plays into a single feature-length narrative. The playwright was so enthusiastic after its release, that he declared it to be the best adaptation of his work to the screen he had ever experienced. O'Neill told Ford the film was a: "grand, deeply moving and beautiful piece of work...a great picture.” The atmospheric film is the result of Ford being joined by two of his favorite collaborators; cinematographer Greg Toland and screenwriter Dudley Nichols. Despite being a disappointment at the box office, critics continue to praise the film, which, much like The Informer, is seen as a significant precursor of the film noir aesthetic. 

 

The New Yorker’s John Mosher said of The Long Voyage Home: "one of the magnificent films of film history. Never has the sea, its infinite pictorial possibilities, been so comprehended upon the screen and its beauty and its threat so eloquently conveyed.” This is a remarkable statement for a film made entirely on a sound stage. 

PLOT SUMMARY

A merchant ship's crew copes with the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war as they transport explosive munitions across the Atlantic.