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Moon For The Misbegotten

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Written in 1943, it took "A Moon for the Misbegotten" over 30 years to find its place as one of the most important works in the Eugene O'Neill canon. First produced on Broadway in 1958, the play was originally dismissed as second-rate O'Neill. It took the powerhouse 1974 revival directed by Jose Quintero and starring Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst and Ed Flanders to finally earn O'Neill's painful reminiscence about his brother Jamie, unforgettably introduced to audiences in "Long Days Journey Into Night," the deserved accolade of "masterpiece."

The story is incidental: dirt farmers Josie and her father attempt to dupe their alcoholic landlord James Tyrone, Jr. into spending the night with Josie in the hopes of initiating a vague stab at retaliation against a scheme that Tyrone has hatched against him. But when the drunken lessor shows up for the assignation, what unfolds is a series of jolting revelations that leaves all of the characters - and the audience - emotionally spent, with only a lingering sense of compassion haunting their well-traveled spirits.

This DVD is the ABC television production of this landmark theatrical event, and admirers of great acting can only be thankful that the production was preserved on video. The performances of Jason Robards, repeating the role he created in the original Broadway production and film of "Long Day's Journey"; Ed Flanders, who received both the Tony Award for the Broadway production and the Emmy for the television presentation; and most especially Colleen Dewhurst, who is magnificent in her Tony Award-winning role as Josie, all offer such brilliantly moving performances that the memory of them will linger long after the final credits unspool.

This play revival marks the pinnacle of several noteworthy careers. Jose Quintero has made a reputation, in part, as his generation's foremost interpreter of O'Neill. Colleen Dewhurst was one of the great stage actresses of her time. Those aware of the history of the American Stage, know about Jason Robards' credentials when it comes to nailing down an O'Neill character. Throw in Hal Holbrooke for good measure, in ostensibly his finest stage performance apart from Mark Twain Tonight, and you've got a harmonic convergence of the highest order.

For those who were not lucky enough to watch the magic unfold on stage, this video will have to suffice. Though it suffers from the same limitations as other filmed versions of staged performances, it is nevertheless a record to be treasured by lovers of O'Neill, theatre fans, and connisseurs of great acting and directing everywhere and always.

Those of us who had the pleasure to know Jason Robards, know how close the actor's own past paralleled that of the character he portrayed in this play (James Tyrone, Jr.). Like Tyrone, Robards fought with his alcoholic demons. In his last decades, he conquered his disease, with the help of a strong, loving, Irish-American wife. Robards threw himself exhaustingly, night after night into this role, as did Dewhurst. The result was an evening of true catharsis, in the strict Greek sense of the word, for actors and audience. As Dewhurst cradles Robards in her pieta-like embrace and the lights fade out at the end of the play, we know we have all been changed by a profound confluence of talent and tears.

I was completely mesmorized by this production. It had my undivided attention from start to finish. My first introduction to Eugene O'Neill was when I saw A Long Days Journey in the late 70's with Deborah Kerr. It was a play I have never forgotten. If I had one wish after watching A Moon for the Misbegotten on film it would be to turn back the time 25 years so I could see Colleen Dewhurst as Josie in person. O'Neill's plays have an all male cast with the exception of one very strong female role. It took a strong yet amiable personality to play Josie, and Colleen Dewhurst was just the actress to capture the attention of an entire audience while not upstaging the other actors. If you love Colleen Dewhurst, Jason Robards, Eugene O'Neill, or the theatre in general, this is one performance not to be missed.

this production has some of the greats in it and directing it. jason robards and colleen dewhurst really make the characters come alive. it is a bittersweet story, all the more satisfying if you happened to have seen "long days journey into night" first. Eugene O'Neill is a master.

The bulk of Eugene O'Neill's work was done between about 1914 and 1933, a period which saw him win Pulitzer Prizes for Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, and Strange Interlude as well as create such landmark plays as The Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape, Desire Under the Elms, The Great God Brown, and Mourning Becomes Electra. But around 1933 O'Neill--who struggled against a host of personal demons--went silent. Although he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, most felt that he was burned out, written out, and that his career was over.

In 1947 O'Neill allowed the performance of a new work, A Moon for the Misbegotten, in Columbus, Ohio. Major critics did not exactly fall over themselves to see it and the reports that did leak through were not positive. The play was withdrawn and forgotten and O'Neill died in 1953. At that point, however, it became known that he had written several during the 1930s and 1940s that he had never released, his will specifying that they could not be performed until after his death. The treasure trove included two of his greatest works: The Iceman Commeth and Long Day's Journey Into Night, the latter of which was a painfully realistic portrait of his family and which won O'Neill yet another Pulitizer Prize. These plays prompted a renewed interest in O'Neill's work, and in 1957 A Moon For The Misbegotten at last opened on Broadway--where, in spite of a memorable cast that included Franchot Tone and Wendy Hiller--it was a mighty flop, playing a grand total of sixty-eight performances. Even so, the play had its champions, and a British televison production and a successful 1960s off-Broadway revival eventually led to a 1973 Broadway revival, directed by Jose Quintero and starring Collen Dewhurst, Jason Robards, and Ed Flanders. The production ran for 313 performances, won a Tony for Dewhurst, and proved the worth of the play.

In 1975 the cast reunited to perform the play as a television production. Although there were changes in camera angle, real horses, real pigs in the pig pen, and and a few minor set changes, it was presented very much as a play; there was no effort to "open up" the script and translate it into a motion picture vocabulary. Such a style of presentation is inevitably somewhat static, but between O'Neill's script, the performances, and the overall interpretation, A Moon for The Misbegotten was one of the most widely discussed television productions of its year, and it remains as fascinating today as it was thirty years ago.

Long Day's Journey Into Night had painted a portrait of O'Neill's brother as a hopeless, embittered alcoholic struggling to survive his father's boorishness and his mother's drug addiction. A Moon for the Misbegotten might be thought of as sequel, for it presents the same character, Jamie Tyrone, after his mother's death from drugs and as he continues his own descent into an alcoholic hell. The play presents Jamie (Jason Robards) as owner of a farm, which he rents to Phil Hogan (Ed Flanders), an Irishman and a drunk whose thirst equals Jamie's. The only one of his children remaining on the farm is Hogan's daughter Josie (Colleen Dewhurst), a tall and broad woman whose many affairs have given her the reputation of a slut--a reputation that Jamie does not believe. Although both deny any romantic or sexual interest in the other, both Jamie and Josie have an eye for each other, but it is difficult to know how deep their feelings for each other run.

Jamie has promised to sell the farm to Hogan, but an unexpected turn of events has led one of the farm's neighbors to offer an outrageous sum of money for the property. Given Jamie's financial pains, it seems likely that he will sell the farm out from under Hogan and Josie--and so Josie, in a fit of anger, makes up a plot to entice Jamie into her bed and thereafter blackmail into selling the farm to her father after all. But when the very drunken Jamie arrives in the night to meet Josie, what actually occurs is a series of personal and painful revelations that jolt both into deeply felt pathos. Unlike some O'Neill plays, which conclude on a note of stark tragedy, A Moon For The Misbegotten is more open-ended, less sure--but even so the ending implies little good to come.

At this time Jason Robards was considered the great interpreter of O'Neill's work, having already appeared in The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey Into Night, and he gives an excellent performance here; so too does Ed Flanders. But the central figure of the play is Josie Hogart, and Colleen Dewhurst is not only up the challenge of a very difficult role, she essentially walks away with the entire show. One easily understands why she was considered one of the great stage actresses of her era and why she won a Tony Award for this particular role; she is by turns brash and pitiful, loveable and infuriating, and while many an actor has struggled with O'Neill's lines she carries them with tremendous grace and ease. It is a magnificent showing.

The DVD offers the original telecast in good condition, with the video and sound elements well preserved. There are, unfortunately, little in the way of extras. But the play's the thing, as Shakespeare himself said, and extras or no extras, Moon For The Misbegotten is truly something to see. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This may not be one of the more well known of O'Neill's plays but it stands with "Long Day's Journey ..." and "The Iceman Cometh" when you want realistic,intense drama. There is humor to begin but be prepared to strap yourself in because this is an emotional ride to the depths of a human soul. I saw this when it was originally broadcast on ABC television more than 30 years ago and it stuck with me all these years. It has not lost it's punch!! I highly recommend it.

You meet O'Neill's family again here. MFTM is like a sequel to 'A Long Day's Journey Into Night.' It's slow, and unravels as O'Neill likes to. Rich and full of throat-tightening moments. This is one helluva show by one of the finest O'Neill actors (Robards) to speak the words. Buy it, sit down on a slow day or night, and just enjoy the words and people you spy on for a time. 'Iceman Cometh' is still my favorite, but this comes pretty darn close to warming the heart as fully.

This is an example of a product simply being what it is; that is: this is a transcription of the television special of the celebrated production of O'Neill's great play A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, starring Jason Robards Jr. and Colleen Dewhurst at their peak. These two performances are probably among the greatest ever put on the American stage: Robards and Dewhurst were the perfect interpreters for the raging emotions of this tortured genius of a playwright. There's little filmic technique to speak of, and there's no real imagination in terms of the visual handling or the filming (to see a really brilliant example of "filmed theater" which truly transcends itself, you can check out Louis Malle's VANYA ON 42nd STREET), but it doesn't matter, because what you're getting, the absolutely sublime performances of Robards and Dewhurst, is transcendence enough.

If compelling acting by a virtuoso cast does it for you, then this (along with the Arthur Penn film production of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night) is a film experience you do not want to deny yourself. Don't expect to feel good during it -- don't expect to get a good night's sleep after it. But rest assured that catching a couple of pros like Robards and (his former wife) Dewhurst at the peak of their interpretive powers will renew your faith in the power both theater and film. While many of O'Neill's plays now feel a little Pre Cambrian, this is a melodrama that doesn't lumber. The tragic tender trap of past experience overwhelming present love is this playwright's personal territory and you'll be glad, if not happy, that you let him be your guide.

Delivery was prompt in a well conditioned packaging.
Good quality recording of a known play by Nobel Prize winner Eugene O'Neill.I am totally satisfied