Product Details

• Actors: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald
• Directors: John Ford
• Writers: Dudley Nichols, Eugene O'Neill
• Producers: John Ford, Walter Wanger
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JO4E
• For more information about "The Long Voyage Home" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Eugene O'Neill loved this feature-length adaptation of his one-act sea plays, with intelligent bridging material written by Dudley Nichols and a final movement, both hellish and elegiac, appropriate to the onset of World War II. John Ford directed, in his more self-consciously arty vein (à la The Informer) but with no loss of power or passion. It's entirely fitting that the director shared his panel in the credits with cinematographer Gregg Toland, who had just shot The Grapes of Wrath for him in hard, dust-bowl sunlight and would next enter the labyrinth of Orson Welles's Citizen Kane; you'd be thrilled to have any frame of this film blown up and hanging on your wall.

The focus is on the working seamen aboard a merchant ship making its way from the Caribbean to New York harbor and then England, with dangerous cargo on the transatlantic leg. Thomas Mitchell (who had won a 1939 Oscar in Ford's Stagecoach) gives a career-best performance as Driscoll; Ian Hunter plays the enigmatic shipmate known only as "Smitty"; Ford regulars Barry Fitzgerald, John Qualen, Ward Bond, Arthur Shields, and Joseph Sawyer fill key roles; and the top-billed John Wayne contributes a surprisingly effective supporting performance as Ole, a gentle Swedish giant who really belongs on a farm somewhere. Although neglected in recent years--and seriously in need of restoration to do justice to its magnificent images--this movie has a permanent place of honor in one of the most amazing three-year creative streaks (throw in Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, and How Green Was My Valley) any director ever had. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Musical Score, March 10, 2003

By 

Melvyn R. Windham (Acworth, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Voyage Home [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If this is the movie I think it is (in how many movies did Johh Wayne have a Swedish accent?), it wasn't but a few years ago when I got a chance to see it from beginning to end as an adult.

When I think of this movie, there is one scene that stands out from all the rest; and it is the haunting musical score that caused this. The scene, as I said, is quite simple. We see nothing but the ship itself leaving a dock in the harbor at night. And then the music - "Those Harbor Lights" - begins in what strikes me as a bitter-sweet tone - building gradually during its short duration in such a fashion that it left me feeling almost empty, desperate, hopeless, helpless - for want of better adjectives. I had heard that tune many times over the years - but never as so hauntingly and piercingly as it was performed in that movie - and without words, too! It turned out to be one of those tunes that - once it entered my head - would bounce around and around - taking me days to finally purge it from my system.

Not too many movie scenes have affected me this way.

I highly recommend this movie for this scene alone. To me it is a different type of John Ford movie, but with top-notch acting, including Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Barry's brother Arthur Shields, and John Wayne (and with a Swedish accent in the bargain!). A real joy to watch.

Enjoy!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Voyage, May 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Long Voyage Home [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Wonderful work by John Ford and his team, who stitched together some Eugene O'Neill playlets about the merchant marine into the only film of his own work the writer could stand to watch. The real star here is Thomas Mitchell, the Duke is just a supporting player, and Mitchell gives the best performance of his great career. The moment in which Mitchell realizes that he is delving into a fellow shipmate's sad private life under the mistaken impression that the man is a spy has rarely been equalled in the American movies for emotional power. The film doesn't get mentioned enough in the litany of Ford's great movies but he never surpassed it, in my view.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Tense Life on a Merchant Ship during war, September 7, 2000

By 

Larry W. Mayes (Lewiston, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long Voyage Home [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Although a slow paced movie, there is an underlying tension as everyday life of merchant sailors as they labor and die to deliver crucial supplies as war rages far away or is it just over the horizon. From one scene to another, the dreams and fears of crew members are exposed. Many of the crew show their emotions as tension peaks and wanes. These are men here who would rather be somewhere else or who don't know any other life or who have hidden from the reality of their lives on a ship that is sailing in waters where U-Boats could be sighted at any moment. The Kreigsmarine is looking for you as the Nazi's have declared an open season on you and other Allied shipping. Will the next ship torpedoed and sent to the bottom be one of those others or will it be you? Enjoy the sound track as it has some wonderful music that you might otherwise miss. It is a gem of a movie you will be able to appreciate, if you just take the time.