Long Day's Journey into Night

Playwright Eugene O'Neill sold Random House the text of his intensely autobiographical 1941 play on the proviso that the play not be produced during O'Neill's lifetime. Two years after the playwright's death in 1953, the play was given its first Broadway staging and won a Pulitzer Prize. Set in 1912 ...more

Long Day's Journey Into Night is one of the screen's most insightful examinations of lives caught in a downward cycle of co-dependency and despair. Working from the highly autobiographical stage play by Eugene O'Neill, director Sidney Lumet keeps the material interesting despite a 174-minute running time, and cinematographer Boris Kaufman contributes a distinctively angular, shadowy atmosphere. The performances are well-matched to the material, notably Katherine Hepburn in an unusual role as the ...more