The Long Voyage Home
Screening on Film
Directed by John Ford.
With John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, Mildred Natwick.
US, 1940, 35mm, black & white.
With John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, Mildred Natwick.
US, 1940, 35mm, black & white.
The most unknown, unseen of John Ford masterpieces is this moody, melancholic rendition of three Eugene O’Neill one-acts about sailors lost in lonely life on the sea. Here is one of those immortal Ford ensembles of character actors—Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerald, Mildred Natwick—who surround young, gawky John Wayne. . . playing a Swede! He’s the hope, the one person who everybody tries to send home and away from the torturous shipboard life. The extraordinary camerawork is by Gregg Toland, just before Citizen Kane.
