Mourning Becomes Electra

Rating:
Summary: A watered down and rather cold version of O'Neill's plays
Review: "Mourning Becomes Electra" is not simply Eugene O'Neill's updated version of the "Orestia" by Aeschylus. The ancient Greek tragedy, which has the distinction of being the first dramatic work to be performed a second time, was a celebration of the Athenian system of justice. But what O'Neill focuses on in turning the story of the House of Atreus after the Trojan War into the Mannon family of New England following the end of the Civil War, is the cycle of vengeance. O'Neill changes the precipitating event for the cycle, forgoing an Iphigenia-like figure to talk about a Mannon ancestor being a judge at the Salem Witch Trials and to reinvent Thyestes as a disinherited relative whose progeny comes back for revenge. Likewise, the uplifting ending of the "Orestia," where Orestes claims his right to be forgiven, is foregone to place the onus on ending the cycle squarely on the Electra-character. Furthermore, with a justice system in place the first murder results from an act of remission, while another is covered up as a robbery and a third become a suicide, all of which play against the original tale.

This black & white 1947 film, directed and scripted by Dudley Nichols, runs 173 minutes, but given that the original drama is really three plays, just like the "Orestia," this is reducing the scope of O'Neill's work by half. Adding insult to injury, there is was a 105-minute edited version at one point (the mind shudders to think of reducing O'Neill's epic to about the length of a single, long act). Titles appear to let the viewers now when we are moving from one part of the drama to the next. First, is "The Homecoming," in which General Ezra Mannon (Raymond Massey) returns home from the war. His doting daughter Lavinia (Rosalind Russell) is happy to see him, but Ezra's wife, Christine (Katina Paxinou) is not. She has been having an affair with Adam Brant (Leo Genn), a sea captain who is son of the disinherited Mannon and a servant girl. Ever since Ezra went away to war, taking her beloved son, Orin (Michael Redgrave) with him, Christine has been wishing for her husband's death. When he comes home seeking to reconcile with his wife, she refuses his advances and with her confessions bring on a heart attack, she does not give him his medicine. But before he dies, Ezra points an accusing finger at Christine and declares her "guilty" in front of Lavinia.

"The Hunted" begins with Orin returning home, having recovered from a head wound he received in the war. The beloved son of his mother, Lavinia has to convince her brother that Christine in responsible for the death of their father. Confronting Orin with proof of their mother's infidelity, Lavinia does not spur her brother to kill his mother, but rather to kill Brant. Getting way with the murder he tells Christine what he has done which drives her to suicide, leaving Orin crazed with remorse. The final part, "The Haunted," is where O'Neill diverge the most from Aeschylus. Instead of Orestes haunted by the Furies for slaying Clytemnestra and avenging Agamemnon, Orin's torment is entirely psychological. Meanwhile, Lavinia is being courted by Peter Niles (Kirk Douglas), who represents the possibility of a happy life freed from the Mannon curse. But instead of ending with a new notion of justice, "Mourning Becomes Electra" concludes with the symbolic end of the Mannon family.

The maritime background of O'Neill is present in these dramas, but more important is the Puritanism of his native New England. The curse on this family is entirely sexual in nature, from what happened with the servant girl before the current Mannon mansion was built to the sins of this generation. Even though Agamemnon brought home Cassandra from Troy as his concubine, Clytemnestra killed him because of the sacrifice of Iphigenia. But for O'Neill it is all about the sex, including having Brant talking Lavinia for a moonlight walk before settling on her mother as his conquest. The problem is that this is the sort of sex that is behind closed doors, the results of not only the inherent Puritanism of the characters but also the strictures of early 20th-century American theater and the Hayes office. The result is talking about it without really talking about it, and with a cold passion that is rather disconcerting.

Ironically, the stiff formality of the acting performances are more in keeping with ancient Greek drama than with modern American theater, which only serves to distance the drama from the audience. For me there is another intervening layer because I know that when RKO bought the rights to "Mourning Becomes Electra" Katharine Hepburn tried to put together a production in which she would play Lavinia and Greta Garbo would come out of retirement to play Christine. Once your eyes bug out at the thought of that casting it is hard to watch Russell and Paxinou without being disappointed at what might have been. The result is an odd and decidedly not "little" film that fails to do O'Neill justice.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: Almost 3 hours of an unintelligible dialog take all the pleasure of what appears to be an intelligent version of the theatrical piece. For this price, IMAGE should have provided at least subtitles. It has no extras, what it is not so bad after all. Don't waste your money on this issue.

Rating:
Summary: Great Play Bombed By Miscasting
Review: One of the many excellent plays by O'Neil is destroyed by poor casting. Massey is the best one in the cast. Paxinou is an embarassment; half her dialogue is not understandable due to her heavy accent (and the DVD is NOT closed captioned). Her constant use of her eyes like a silent movie star is laughable at times, ruining the drama of the scene. Redgrave can't quite get the ebb and flow of the American English for which O'Neil is so well known. He is too over the top near the end. And Russell just holds up her head and looks down her nose as her way of registering Lavinia's imagined superiority to the other characters. Her voice has an irritating, pinched sound at all the dramatic moments; she nevers builds to an emotion - she just starts screaming. She's just plain awful! Poor Kirk Douglas is lost among all these scenery chewers. IMAGE has made a rotten transfer to DVD. There are white specks throughout, and the extreme contrast between the blacks and whites, renders some scenes unwatchable. The soundtrack has a constant hiss, and has not been properly balanced digitally. All in all, a waste of money. Stick with the EXCELLENT Broadway Archieve production which is vastly superior on all counts (and which is a production of the COMPLETE play). This one is strictly of historical interest to O'Neil fans.

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY!!!
Review: This is one of the most underrated, overlooked films of Hollywood's Golden Era, the 1940's. I cannot understand why this film has been lamblasted over the years. It is a compelling, superbly acted drama from a famous play. Perhaps it was a dud in 1947, but the years have erased that, and I applaud loudly to Image for putting it on DVD. Never on VHS or laserdisc, it is time it was available to the home video market. If you want to see motion picture acting at its best, watch Russell, Redgrave, Paxinou, and Massey here. It's all been done recently - all these plot elements have been done on "Dallas," "Dynasty," and "Knots Landing" and countless daytime soaps. But this is the ORIGINAL. Watch it and relish what great moviemaking and acting is.