The Long Voyage Home

The Long Voyage Home

  • Photos & Videos

Film Details

  • Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, thomas mitchell, barry fitzgerald, wilfrid lawson, photos & videos, technical specs.

the long voyage home wikipedia

On the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England, the British tramp steamer the Glencairn takes aboard a cargo of munitions, a circumstance which turns the natural complaining of the crew into a case of genuine fear. Those fears are realized when a heavy gale tests the mettle of the ship and in the storm, mountainous waves hurtle the sailor Yank to the seething deck, thus bringing him to his death as his shipmates, Ole Olson and Driscoll, watch helplessly. As they approach land, the crew begins to suspect their brooding, aloof shipmate, Smitty, of sending signals to the Nazis, but they discover that Smitty has really withdrawn in disgrace from his family and all those around him because of his alchoholism. This revelation forces Smitty to resolve to return to his wife and children, but the reunion is tragically doomed when a Nazi plane swoops down from the skies off England and Smitty is killed in the attack. Safely in port after their harrowing crossing, the crew channel their energies into making sure that Ole leaves the sea to return to his aged mother in Sweden, but after bidding his friends farewell, Ole is shanghaied aboard the Amindra . Rescued by Driscoll and his other mates, Ole's voyage ends happily. Not so for Driscoll, because in the rescue he is taken prisoner and sails off aboard the Amindra in Ole's place. As the remaining seafarers return to the Glencairn to resume their long journey, they learn that Driscoll perished aboard the Amindra when the ship was sunk by a torpedo.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Mildred Natwick

the long voyage home wikipedia

John Qualen

the long voyage home wikipedia

Arthur Shields

the long voyage home wikipedia

Joseph Sawyer

the long voyage home wikipedia

J. M. Kerrigan

the long voyage home wikipedia

Rafaela Ottiano

Carmen morales, carmen d'antonio, david hughes.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Billy Bevan

Cyril mclaglen.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Douglas Walton

Constantine romanoff, edgar "blue" washington, lionel pape, jane crowley, maureen roden-ryan, jack pennick, bob e. perry, constant franke, dan borzage, harry tenbrook, tina menard, judith linden, elena martinez, lita cortez, soledad gonzales.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Harry Woods

the long voyage home wikipedia

James Flavin

Lee shumway, wyndham standing, lowell drew, sammy stein, bing conley, ky robinson, mary aiken carewe, roger steele, luanne robb, guy kingsford, les sketchley, james basevi, r. o. binger, bob burkhardt, lowell farrell, richard hageman, julia heron, r. t. layton, b. f. mceveety, dudley nichols, edward paul, wingate smith, sherman todd, gregg toland, walter wanger, photo collections.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Hosted Intro

the long voyage home wikipedia

Award Nominations

Best cinematography, best editing, best picture, best special effects, best writing, screenplay.

The Long Voyage Home

'Wayne, John' was asked by director 'Ford, John' to play the part of Ole Olson, who happened to be Swedish. Wayne wasn't sure he could pull off the Swedish accent, and was worried that the audience would laugh. Ford persuaded Wayne to take the role.

Bound East for Cardiff opened in Provincetown, Massachusetts on 28 July 1916. In the Zone opened in New York on 31 October 1917. The Long Voyage Home opened in New York on 2 November 1917. The Moon of the Caribees opened in New York on 20 December 1918.

According to Life , the picture was filmed aboard the freighter the S.S. Munami at Wilmington Harbor, CA. The film marked the screen debut of stage actress Mildred Natwick. This was the first production of John Ford's Argosy Corp. Modern sources note that under his Fox contract, John Ford was allowed to make one feature per year outside the studio. To make this film, he and Walter Wanger set up Argosy. The next Argosy production was The Fugitive , made in 1947. The Long Voyage Home was nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Special Photographic Effects, Best Sound and Best Screenplay. It also was included in the National Board of Review 's "ten best" list of 1940.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Fall November 11, 1940

Released in United States November 1971

Based on the sea plays "Bound East For Cardiff", "In The Zone", "The Long Voyage Home" and "The Moon of the Caribees" by Eugene O'Neill.

Released in United States November 1971 (Shown at FILMEX: Los Angeles International Film Exposition (A Tribute to the American Cinema) November 4-14, 1971.)

Sign Up now to stay up to date with all of the latest news from TCM.

the long voyage home wikipedia

Your Browser is Not Supported

To view this content, please use one of the following compatible browsers:

the long voyage home wikipedia

Safari v11+

the long voyage home wikipedia

Firefox Quantum

the long voyage home wikipedia

Microsoft Edge

  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews

The Long Voyage Home

The Long Voyage Home

  • A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.
  • The crew of the SS Glencairn, composed of lonely men, need to transport explosive ammunition from the United States to London, in the beginning of World War II. Along their journey, drunkenness, fights, suspicion, deaths, and trouble caused by German planes, fill their lives. Only Ole Olsen (John Wayne) wants to change his life and move back home to Stockholm, Sweden. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Aboard the freighter Glencairn, the lives of the crew are lived out in fear, loneliness, suspicion and cameraderie. The men smuggle drink and women aboard, fight with each other, spy on each other, comfort each other as death approaches, and rescue each other from danger. — Jim Beaver <[email protected]>

It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Be the first to contribute.

Contribute to this page

John Wayne and Thomas Mitchell in The Long Voyage Home (1940)

  • See more gaps
  • Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore.

Production art

Recently viewed

Follow us on Facebook

Search form

UCLA Film and Television Archive

You are here

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in association with the Library of Congress, with funding provided by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation

The Long Voyage Home  (1940)

The powers and fascinations of director John Ford and playwright Eugene O’Neill are happily met in this 1940 feature dramatizing the lives of men who serve as crew members aboard commercial freighters.  Like O’Neill, Ford nursed a lifelong obsession with sailing and the sea, and had spent his early years in Portland, Maine, amid the maritime culture that this picture describes.  Adapted and updated by screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Ford’s frequent collaborator) from four of O’Neill’s early plays set aboard the fictional “SS Glencairn,” the film recounts the experiences of the ship’s crew while transporting ammunition from the West Indies to England during World War II.  The story thus presents four mini-dramas, each with its own catharsis, while neatly making general points about the specialized society in which these men live—disregarded by callous superiors, consigned to repeated voyages for lack of better work, and developing codes of honor and friendships that sustain them through the severe physical and psychological hardships of their lives.

Nichols and Ford expertly martial the unconventional, four-part structure to create recurrent emotional surges, akin to the ebb and flow of great waves, as endurance and loyalty are tested again and again.  The various anecdotes underscore the pressures that so often lead to bouts of drinking and brawling (tantamount to bonding), and just as often, to the decision to ship out on yet another grueling voyage.  Richard Hageman’s music score underlines the same “ebb and flow” movement, adroitly counterposing the spirited shanty “Blow the Man Down” with the plaintive “Harbor Lights,” contrasting the urge to adventure with the longing for home.

Ford makes ingenious use of an admirable group of character actors, whose personification of the tight-knit crew collapses the space between stars and supporting players, taking full advantage of sterling dialogue and weighty dramatic opportunities.  Particularly impressive are Thomas Mitchell as swaggering “Driscoll,” a fractured character in the best O’Neill tradition, and Mildred Natwick in her first film role as a Cockney prostitute in a harbor saloon.

A penetrating portrait of the dispossessed, the film was not a financial success, but showcases numerous talents to wonderful advantage, and as an incidental fact, was purportedly greatly admired by Eugene O’Neill, who was said to have screened the film privately numerous times.  — Shannon Kelley

Director: John Ford.  Production: Argosy Corporation, A John Ford Production.  Distribution: United Artists Corp.   Screenwriter: Dudley Nichols.  Based on the plays Bound East For Cardiff , In the Zone , The Long Voyage Home and The Moon of the Caribees by Eugene O’Neill.  Cinematographer: Gregg Toland.  Art Direction: James Basevi. Editor: Sherman Todd.  Music: Richard Hageman.  Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson.  35mm, b/w, 103 min.

Restored from a 35mm safety fine grain master and a 35mm safety track positive.  Laboratory services by Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Simon Daniel Sound.  Special thanks to: Ned Price—Warner Bros.

To report problems, broken links, or comment on the website, please contact support

Copyright © 2024 UCLA Film & Television Archive. All Rights Reserved

University of California, Los Angeles

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Rotten Tomatoes Newsletter

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

  • Upcoming Movies and TV shows
  • Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
  • Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

  • What's the Tomatometer®?
  • Login/signup

the long voyage home wikipedia

Movies in theaters

  • Opening this week
  • Top box office
  • Coming soon to theaters
  • Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

  • Fandango at Home
  • Netflix streaming
  • Prime Video
  • Most popular streaming movies
  • What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

  • The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
  • I Saw the TV Glow Link to I Saw the TV Glow
  • The Idea of You Link to The Idea of You

New TV Tonight

  • Hacks: Season 3
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz: Season 1
  • Shardlake: Season 1
  • A Man in Full: Season 1
  • The Veil: Season 1
  • Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Season 1
  • Acapulco: Season 3
  • Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3
  • John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA: Season 1
  • My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Season 4.2

Most Popular TV on RT

  • Fallout: Season 1
  • Baby Reindeer: Season 1
  • Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
  • Them: Season 2
  • Shōgun: Season 1
  • X-Men '97: Season 1
  • Under the Bridge: Season 1
  • The Sympathizer: Season 1
  • Best TV Shows
  • Most Popular TV
  • TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

  • Knuckles: Season 1 Link to Knuckles: Season 1
  • All-Time Lists
  • Binge Guide
  • Comics on TV
  • Five Favorite Films
  • Video Interviews
  • Weekend Box Office
  • Weekly Ketchup
  • What to Watch

100 Essential Criterion Collection Films

100 Best Free Movies on YouTube (May 2024)

Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

6 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in May

5 Most Anticipated Movies of May 2024

  • Trending on RT
  • The Fall Guy
  • The Idea of You
  • Best Movies of All Time
  • Play Movie Trivia

The Long Voyage Home

Where to watch.

Watch The Long Voyage Home with a subscription on Max.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Thomas Mitchell

Barry Fitzgerald

More Like This

Critics reviews.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

  • Start a new list…
  • Add all films to a list…
  • Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

The Long Voyage Home

Where to watch

The long voyage home.

Directed by John Ford

The Love of Women in Their Eyes... The Salt of the Sea in Their Blood!

The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II. Adapted from four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays.

John Wayne Thomas Mitchell Ian Hunter Barry Fitzgerald Wilfrid Lawson John Qualen Mildred Natwick Ward Bond Arthur Shields Joe Sawyer Rafaela Ottiano Jack Pennick Douglas Walton Billy Bevan Judith Linden James Flavin Lionel Pape Wyndham Standing Blue Washington Harry Woods J.M. Kerrigan Carmen Morales Bob Perry Constant Franke David Hughes Constantine Romanoff Danny Borzage Harry Tenbrook Cyril McLaglen Show All… Mary Carewe Bing Conley Jane Crowley Carmen D'Antonio Lowell Drew Soledad Gonzales Guy Kingsford Elena Martínez Tina Menard Art Miles Luanne Robb Ky Robinson Maureen Roden-Ryan Lee Shumway Leslie Sketchley Roger Steele Sammy Stein

Director Director

Producers producers.

Walter Wanger John Ford

Writer Writer

Dudley Nichols

Original Writer Original Writer

Eugene O'Neill

Editor Editor

Sherman Todd

Cinematography Cinematography

Gregg Toland

Assistant Director Asst. Director

Wingate Smith

Art Direction Art Direction

James Basevi

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Julia Heron

Composer Composer

Richard Hageman

United Artists Argosy Pictures Walter Wanger Productions

Releases by Date

08 oct 1940, theatrical limited, 16 nov 1940, 22 nov 1940, 01 jan 1941, 11 mar 1941, releases by country.

  • Theatrical e 14
  • Premiere NR New York City, New York
  • Theatrical limited NR Chicago, Illinois
  • Theatrical NR

105 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

theriverjordan

Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 21

“The Long Voyage Home” is a gloriously photographed portrait of survival in the face of heroism. 

Director John Ford’s first film to touch upon the waters of the Second World War; “Voyage” arrived in theatres one year before America declared its involvement in the conflict. 

As Orson Welles would on “Citizen Kane,” Ford splits title card credit on “Voyage” with cinematographer Gregg Toland. It’s a well deserved concession to the DP’s essentiality to the success of “Voyage” as a film. Toland’s deepest of shadows and fog-darkened skies depict a world growing darker by the day. 

“Voyage” floats on the liminal plane of its own merchant marine ship; between nations and their quarrels — it carries a crew of men who…

comrade_yui

Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 2

anticipates tarkovsky in the traversal of a 'Zone' through which the fordian company of disparate nationals, by inhabiting a suspended space of moral judgement (the land vs. sea motif), are able to reckon with their own individual failings and achieve a collective awakening to the political circumstances around them. ford links existential truth with historical truth, and places man within his own proto-mythic context; take a drink every time there's a drunken brawl in one of these films, ford loves that shit.

📀 Cammmalot 📀

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★★

Cinematic Time Capsule 1940 Marathon - Film #84

A starvation tub if ever I saw one… Rotten grub, work night and day, and your skull split open if you open your mouth,

John Ford’s Long Voyage Home is a bleak, dark and utterly gorgeous piece of work. An episodic weaving together of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill that explores the life of rough and tumble merchant ship sailors in the early days of World War II.

Thomas Mitchell completely owns this movie as the hot headed Driscoll who’ll cheerfully wallop ya one second, hug ya the next and then wallop ya again all for no reason. The final act in which the boy’s only goal is to get John…

Jake Cole

Review by Jake Cole ★★★★½

A ghost ship movie, set against a terrible void as silver light bathes a lone boat in an ectoplasmic glow. Like most of the best Ford movies, plot is incidental and comes and goes like a tide, with bridging vignettes not so much replacing mythic cinematography with human revelation as bringing out the human contours of that iconography. Usually, this structure benefits Ford's sense of humor, but despite being a film in which John Wayne speaks with a Swedish accent and drunken sailors cavort around ports, rarely has a Ford film been so relentlessly bleak (only THEY WERE EXPENDABLE and THE INFORMER come to mind, from what I've seen so far). Death is foregrounded in this film and hangs over…

MiguelFerreira

Review by MiguelFerreira ★★★★★

The greatest director who ever lived, filming, with a magnificent black and white director of photography, a story of men in the sea, those who never get old because land - and its issues - passes them by. Strong team work they do, while the mermaids sing. I won't forget this experience. Greatest movie ever made.

Neil Bahadur

Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Ford at his bleakest is also Ford at his most boring? This is a great movie - a 5 for any other director certainly - but there is precious little to think through here, though the images are always astonishing. But I don't know if they are as illustrative as I once thought they were - I think Ford and Toland share a title card together because this is far more of a DP's film than anything else the guy made! Everything is direct, stated outright - the images are claustrophobic but do not necessarily accentuate what is happening on screen. Movie is best at it's ending, Bond's death scene, the letter reading and Wayne also getting shanghaied. But there is one moment which is frankly Ford at his very best - the quick shot of Smitty's children looking at his shipmates after his death. For me this is lower-tier Ford - but still a profound sadness.

Channing Pomeroy

Review by Channing Pomeroy ★★★★

I came for the cinematography and stayed for the characters. Gregg Toland shared a title card with John Ford as he would with Orson Wells the next year for Kane . His truly amazing B&W photography is the star of this ensemble piece. Shafts of light, foggy corridors, long shadows on wet cobblestones.

Ford is torpedoingly-bleak adapting O’Neill and channeling Conrad, and creating one of the finest and least romantic depictions of life at sea in the age of steam. Long Voyage Home is the ironic title about a farraginous crew shipping from the W. Indies to Britain with an explosive cargo. All you need to know about where the SS Glencairn sits in the hierarchy of sea-going vessels is that…

Ziglet_mir

Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★

The port is inebriated tonight, Clouds are rolling in to dock, Into thought, Kicking a can or two all the while,

To manifest a greying light

It dresses the Ladies of the Sea, Their only company, As they drift away from home again. 

Viewed on Amazon Prime.

Jerry

Review by Jerry ★★★★½

"The boat looms as a kind of black id. Inside is a closed community, all male, sleeping, eating, living twelve in a room, in cages. Rather than women, what they crave is oblivion." -Tag Gallagher

AD917

Review by AD917 ★★★★ 2

John Ford spent his whole career painting portraits of communities. Whether it was the Welsh mining village in How Green Was My Valley , the town of Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , or the inhabitants of the stagecoach in... that one about the stagecoach. Ford’s greatest obsession was humanity’s ability to band together and make any environment, no matter how unforgiving, into a home. 

There are a lot of cliches about the concept of home: it’s where the heart is; there’s no place like it... you’ve heard them all. But maybe home is not just the place you grew up, or the place you’re happiest, but the place you’re drawn to—inexplicably, inextricably. As often as you try to…

RanchoTuVu

Review by RanchoTuVu ★★★★½

Directed by John Ford and released in 1940, "The Long Voyage Home" was but a part of the role Hollywood would play in psychologically preparing the US for entering World War II. And, as everyone knows, these early-in-the-war films were some of the best propaganda films made, top-tier talent, outstanding cinematography, they were instrumental game-changers, outshining the flag wavers that came later of men in battle by portraying men reluctant to get involved and full of faults and petty defects. The crew on the steamer SS Glencairn is an assortment of nationalities, in which I imagine Ward Bond is an American but Thomas Mitchell and Barry Fitzgerald are Irish and Ian Hunter is a Brit, while the Duke himself, John…

Schratzi

Review by Schratzi ★★★★½ 2

THE SEARING LOVES AND PRIMITIVE HATREDS OF THE MEN WHO LIVE BY THE SEA !

Based on four short plays by Eugene O’Neill this is the best film ever about men at sea. It’s seldom mentioned among John Ford‘s classics, which is a shame. I think it’s one of his best, most personal and most moving works. If you believe in the ridiculous sales pitch above, though, you might be horribly disappointed, since the movie is worlds - or oceans - removed from Hollywood’s usual adventurous tales of the sea. Shot in highly expressionistic, high-contrast black-and-white by camera legend Gregg Toland, this feels more like a gloomy, fog-shrouded, almost abstract, visual poem come to life on screen. The movie had…

Similar Films

Das Boot

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

logo

  • Rankings FA
  • TV Premiere Calendar
  • Coming in 2024
  • Latest Reviews
  • Cannes 2024 New

United States

The Long Voyage Home

  • Credits 
  • Trailers  [1]
  • Image gallery  [6]

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

The Long Voyage Home

  • See all credits
  • #149 Best War Movies/War Film
  • "One of the finest of all the movies that deal with life at sea, and one of the most successful of all attempts to put Eugene O'Neill on film"  Pauline Kael : The New Yorker
  • "It gives a penetrating glimpse into the hearts of little men and, because it shows that out of human weakness there proceeds some nobility, it is far more gratifying than the fanciest hero-worshiping fare"  Bosley Crowther : The New York Times
  • "As personal and as deeply felt as any of the more recently canonized Ford masterpieces"  Jonathan Rosenbaum : Chicago Reader

All copyrighted material (movie posters, DVD covers, stills, trailers) and trademarks belong to their respective producers and/or distributors.

User history

The Long Voyage Home

  • Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

THE SCREEN; 'The Long Voyage Home,' Magnificent Drama of the Sea, at the Rivoli--A Swedish Film at the 48th St.

By Bosley Crowther

  • Oct. 9, 1940

THE SCREEN; 'The Long Voyage Home,' Magnificent Drama of the Sea, at the Rivoli--A Swedish Film at the 48th St.

Out of Eugene O'Neill's four short plays of the sea, and under the haunting title of one, "The Long Voyage Home," John Ford has truly fashioned a modern Odyssey—a stark and tough-fibered motion picture which tells with lean economy the never-ending story of man's wanderings over the waters of the world in search of peace for his soul. It is not a tranquilizing film, this one which Walter Wanger presented at the Rivoli Theatre last night; it is harsh and relentless and only briefly compassionate in its revelation of man's pathetic shortcomings. But it is one of the most honest pictures ever placed upon the screen; it gives a penetrating glimpse into the hearts of little men and, because it shows that out of human weakness there proceeds some nobility, it is far more gratifying than the fanciest hero-worshiping fare.Mr. Ford has ever been noted for his muscular realism on the screen, for the rich and authentic flavor with which he imbues his films. And in "The Long Voyage Home" he has had an exceptional opportunity to exercise not only his talents but also his avowed affections. For the story is that of the tough crew of the British tramp freighter Glencairn on a present-day voyage from the West Indies, via an American port, to London in a rusty old tub loaded deep with highly explosive ammunition. And the loose and unresolved plot concerns the characters and reactions of the men in the face of lurking danger and their various bewildered impulses. Given a theme of this sort, Mr. Ford is a man inspired.Although the O'Neill plays were written separately and with only the same characters and locale to give them unity, Mr. Ford and his scenarist, Dudley Nichols, have pulled them together handsomely. From "The Moon of the Caribbees" they have taken their departure—the departure of the S. S. Glencairn and its lusty, rum-soaking crew—and proceeded on through the dramatic incidents contained in "Bound East for Cardiff," "In the Zone" and, eventually, the poignant episode of frustration presented in "The Long Voyage Home." If the film does lack a conventional dramatic pattern, it is mainly because of this episodic construction. And this lack may be disturbing to some.But the very essence of the theme lies exactly in its inconclusiveness, in deliberate fumbling onward toward a goal which is never reached, toward a peace which is never attained. Yank, the iron-muscled pal of the Irishman, Driscoll, dies at sea, but even in death he dreams of the land. Smitty, the outcast aristocrat, goes to his doom with a defiant gesture at the world which has overpowered him. Driscoll is lost to another ship, and the remaining members of the Glencairn's crew—with the exception of Olson, who does go home—creep back to sea after a spree in London. In the end, they are Mother Carey's chickens, and the only home they can ever know is the restless deep.And this is the endless story which Mr. Ford has told with magnificent sharpness. His ship is really made of iron and his actors are really tough. Thomas Mitchell as the roaring, truculent Driscoll; Barry Fitzgerald as the viperish steward, Cocky; John Wayne as the gentle, powerful Olson; Ian Hunter as Smitty, the heartsick, and Wilfred Lawson, Ward Bond, all the rest are truly excellent. Suffice it to say that women only appear briefly in this odyssey, and then exclusively as agents of evil. For "The Long Voyage Home" is a story of men, of eternal suffering in a perilous trade, of life and tragic death in the dirty, heroic little cargo boats that sail the wet seas 'round.At the 48th Street TheatreIn watching the pleasant little Swedish picture now at the Forty-eighth Street Theatre, one can't help but think of the present difficult position of the country of its origin and hope that the wholesome, free people typified in "Vi paa Solgläntan" (We At Solgläntan") may never be subjected to totalitarianism.This simple tale of life in a Summer colony near Stockholm, slightly complicated by the foiled efforts of a real estate speculator to buy up the place for a "development," manages to hold the interest of the spectators without dramatics or bathos. It moves smoothly under the guidance of Gunnar Olsson, director of this Europa production.The principals include the favorite comedians, Dagmar Ebbesen, Rut Holm and Nils Lundell. The romantic side is well taken care of by Britta Brunius, whose natural charm and capable acting have put her in the front rank of Scandinavian players, and likable Folke Hamrin. The many secondary parts are filled satisfactorily, especially in the case of the children. There are English titles.MUSIC NOTESEvents tonight: Don Cossack Chorus, under the direction of Serge Jaroff, Carnegie Hall; Elizabeth Zug, pianist, Town Hall; Maurice Sciapio and Grace Camp, song recital, Steinway Hall."Pagliacci," which the San Carlo Opera Company had planned to present on Monday at the World's Fair, will be given at 7 P. M. on Friday instead. It will be staged at the American Common as part of American-Italian week.Ferdé Grofe, Rodney Saylor and John Finley Williamson, New Jersey musicians, will be honored for their contributions to the musical life of the State at a dinner tonight sponsored by the National Committee for Music Appreciation and the Griffith Music Foundation. Dr. John Erskine and Geraldine Farrar will speak.

THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, screen play by Dudley Nichols, based on four one-act plays of the sea by Eugene O'Neill; produced and directed by John Ford; presented by Walter Wanger and released by United Artists. At The Rivoli.Ole Olson . . . . . John WayneDriscoll . . . . . Thomas MitchellSmitty . . . . . Ian HunterCocky . . . . . Barry FitzgeraldCaptain . . . . . Wilfrid LawsonFreda . . . . . Mildred NatwickAxel . . . . . John QualenYank . . . . . Ward BondDonkey Man . . . . . Arthur ShieldsDavis . . . . . Joseph SawyerLimehouse Crimp . . . . . J. M. KerriganTropical Woman . . . . . Rafaela OttianoBumboat Girl . . . . . Carmen MoralesBumboat Girl . . . . . Carmen D'AntonioScotty . . . . . David HughesJoe . . . . . Billy BevanFirst Mate . . . . . Cyril McLaglenSecond Mate . . . . . Douglas WaltonFrank . . . . . Constantine RomanoffMr. Clifton . . . . . Lionel Pape

Films by the Year

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

  • by Dan Willard
  • in American Cinema · Drama · Films from the 1940's
  • — 1 Dec, 2015

the long voyage home film review

John Ford spent a lot of time on the set of F.W. Murnau’s 1927 film  Sunrise   studying the director’s methods, particularly compositions, camera movement, and lighting.  According to reviewer Allan Peach, “Expressionistic elements are common in many Ford films after 1927, but The Informer  (1935) and The Long Voyage Home  mirror the German silent film more than any other American film until Woody Allen’s less than successful Shadows and Fog .” Indeed, the first five minutes of the film is very much like a silent film with hardly a word of dialogue.  The cinematography is by Gregg Toland who also shot Ford’s  The Grapes of Wrath   (1940) and who would be the cinematographer for the first film of a great admirer of Ford’s, Orson Welles. The screenplay is an adaptation of four one-act plays about merchant seamen by Eugene O’Neill who regarded this film as his favorite cinematic adaptation of his work. Dudley Nichols, who also wrote the screenplay for Ford’s  Stagecoach   (1939), does an admirable job of seamlessly combining the four stories into one so the film doesn’t seem episodic. Though John Wayne is top billed he is a rather minor character in an ensemble cast. He plays a Swede who rarely speaks but when he does it’s in broken English with a Swedish accent; a rather atypical role for him. Ian Hunter is a standout as an alcoholic English gentleman who is clearly running away from something as is Thomas Mitchell who plays a feisty Irishman to whom the rest of the crew look up to as a leader.  The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and though it won none, Ford won Best Director for  The Grapes of Wrath.

★★★★★★★★☆☆ (8/10)

The Long Voyage Home  at imdb .

The Long Voyage Home is available on DVD at Amazon .

Awesome, you're subscribed!

Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!

The best things in life are free.

Sign up for our email to enjoy your city without spending a thing (as well as some options when you’re feeling flush).

Déjà vu! We already have this email. Try another?

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.

Love the mag?

Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions.

  • Things to Do
  • Food & Drink
  • Arts & Culture
  • Time Out Market
  • Coca-Cola Foodmarks
  • Los Angeles

Get us in your inbox

🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!

The Long Voyage Home

Time out says, release details.

  • Duration: 105 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director: John Ford
  • Screenwriter: Dudley Nichols
  • Thomas Mitchell
  • Barry Fitzgerald
  • John Qualen
  • Arthur Shields
  • Mildred Natwick
  • Wilfrid Lawson

An email you’ll actually love

Discover Time Out original video

  • Press office
  • Investor relations
  • Work for Time Out
  • Editorial guidelines
  • Privacy notice
  • Do not sell my information
  • Cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms of use
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Manage cookies
  • Advertising

Time Out Worldwide

  • All Time Out Locations
  • North America
  • South America
  • South Pacific

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Long Voyage Home

By Pauline Kael

One of the finest of all the movies that deal with life at sea, and one of the most successful of all attempts to put Eugene O’Neill on film—perhaps because the director, John Ford, and the screenwriter, Dudley Nichols, were so free in their approach to O’Neill’s material. The young Mildred Natwick has a memorable scene in a café with John Wayne, and Barry Fitzgerald’s return to the ship (shrunken and chastened) is a truly great moment. Gregg Toland did the cinematography (which includes some early experiments in deep focus); with Thomas Mitchell, Wilfrid Lawson, Ward Bond, John Qualen, and Joe Sawyer. Released in 1940. (New York Film Festival; Oct. 7)

Story of the Week

Friday, october 11, 2013, the long voyage home.

the long voyage home wikipedia

I am taking advantage of your kind letter asking to see more of my stuff to enclose two one-act plays. They are units in a series the first of which was Bound East For Cardiff , produced in New York last season by the Provincetown Players. They deal with merchant-sailor life on a tramp steamer as it really is—its sordidness inexplicably touched with romance by the glamor of far horizons. . . . I have never seen anything of this kind in The Smart Set and I have small hope of it being the type of material you desire. But I do hope, and hope it strongly, that you will read them. I want these plays, which to me are real , to pass through your acid test because I know your acid is “good medicine.”

Home

You are here

The project, project team, contact, sponsors & donations, news & jobs, search options, browse all collections, search by collection, search by handbook chapters, search by keyword, full text search, collections, secondary literature.

  • By Handbook Chapters
  • By War Period
  • Keyword Search

Autobiographies

  • By Publication Date
  • By War and Period
  • By Director(s)
  • By Release Date

GWonline Learning & Teaching

Material on selected conflicts, syllabus collection.

  • Request new password

The Long Voyage Home

Type of literature:.

  • Feature Film
  • War & Gender
  • War & Men

Time Period:

  • 1910s - 1940s

Major Wars:

  • Second World War (1939-45)
  • -Western Europe
  • -Central Europe
  • -North America
  • Britain/British Empire
  • United States
  • Google Scholar

Category : The Long Voyage Home

Media in category "the long voyage home".

The following 2 files are in this category, out of 2 total.

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • 1940 films of the United States
  • United Artists films
  • Films by John Ford
  • Films based on plays
  • S. S. Glencairn
  • Films produced by Walter Wanger
  • Uses of Wikidata Infobox
  • Uses of Wikidata Infobox with no image
  • Films of the United States by name

Navigation menu

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • This Just In
  • Grateful Dead
  • Old Time Radio
  • 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
  • Audio Books & Poetry
  • Computers, Technology and Science
  • Music, Arts & Culture
  • News & Public Affairs
  • Spirituality & Religion
  • Radio News Archive

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • Flickr Commons
  • Occupy Wall Street Flickr
  • NASA Images
  • Solar System Collection
  • Ames Research Center

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • All Software
  • Old School Emulation
  • MS-DOS Games
  • Historical Software
  • Classic PC Games
  • Software Library
  • Kodi Archive and Support File
  • Vintage Software
  • CD-ROM Software
  • CD-ROM Software Library
  • Software Sites
  • Tucows Software Library
  • Shareware CD-ROMs
  • Software Capsules Compilation
  • CD-ROM Images
  • ZX Spectrum
  • DOOM Level CD

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • Smithsonian Libraries
  • FEDLINK (US)
  • Lincoln Collection
  • American Libraries
  • Canadian Libraries
  • Universal Library
  • Project Gutenberg
  • Children's Library
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Books by Language
  • Additional Collections

the long voyage home wikipedia

  • Prelinger Archives
  • Democracy Now!
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • TV NSA Clip Library
  • Animation & Cartoons
  • Arts & Music
  • Computers & Technology
  • Cultural & Academic Films
  • Ephemeral Films
  • Sports Videos
  • Videogame Videos
  • Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

  • Wayback Machine (iOS)
  • Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

  • Explore the Collections
  • Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

  • Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

The Long Voyage Home

Video item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

  • Graphic Violence
  • Explicit Sexual Content
  • Hate Speech
  • Misinformation/Disinformation
  • Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
  • Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

Creative Commons License

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

17 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by poorskeleton on April 29, 2022

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

IMAGES

  1. Image gallery for The Long Voyage Home

    the long voyage home wikipedia

  2. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    the long voyage home wikipedia

  3. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    the long voyage home wikipedia

  4. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    the long voyage home wikipedia

  5. John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunte

    the long voyage home wikipedia

  6. The Long Voyage Home

    the long voyage home wikipedia

VIDEO

  1. Immortal Movie Music 『 果てなき航路(The Long Voyage Home) 』 Ending Souce 1940

  2. John Qualen By Devil

  3. Opening To The Long Voyage Home 1988 VHS

  4. Welcome to the Wasteland Episode 166: The Long Voyage Home (1940)

  5. Let's Play Gothic 1 The Long Voyage Home #0 [Specjal na 300 Widzów]

  6. Gothic 1 The long voyage home (1)

COMMENTS

  1. The Long Voyage Home

    The Long Voyage Home is a 1940 American drama film directed by John Ford.It stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter.It features Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson, John Qualen, Mildred Natwick, and Ward Bond, among others.. The film was adapted by Dudley Nichols from the plays The Moon of the Caribbees, In the Zone, Bound East for Cardiff, and The Long Voyage Home by Eugene O'Neill.

  2. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    The Long Voyage Home: Directed by John Ford. With John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald. A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.

  3. The Long Voyage Home

    The Long Voyage Home is a 1940 American drama movie directed by John Ford was based on the four plays by Eugene O'Neill. It stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson, Ward Bond, John Qualen, Arthur Shields and was distributed by United Artists. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards in 1941.

  4. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    The Long Voyage Home (1940) was adapted by Dudley Nichols, who updated and wove together four early one-act sea-themed plays written by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill from 1914 to 1919. Not only was Nichols a friend of O'Neill, he later directed a film version of Mourning Becomes Electra (1947). The result here, while rather free ...

  5. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    The crew of the SS Glencairn, composed of lonely men, need to transport explosive ammunition from the United States to London, in the beginning of World War II. Along their journey, drunkenness, fights, suspicion, deaths, and trouble caused by German planes, fill their lives. Only Ole Olsen (John Wayne) wants to change his life and move back ...

  6. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    The Long Voyage Home (1940) The powers and fascinations of director John Ford and playwright Eugene O'Neill are happily met in this 1940 feature dramatizing the lives of men who serve as crew members aboard commercial freighters. Like O'Neill, Ford nursed a lifelong obsession with sailing and the sea, and had spent his early years in ...

  7. The Long Voyage Home

    Oct 8, 2015. Jan 8, 2023. Jan 13, 2021. Oct 31, 2019. Rated: 3/4 • Apr 14, 2013. In Theaters At Home TV Shows. In the early day of World War II, the crew of English cargo ship the SS Glencairn ...

  8. The Long Voyage Home

    Directed by John Ford • 1940 • United States Starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, Ian Hunter Shot in stunning chiaroscuro by master cinematographer Gregg Toland, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME is John Ford's and screenwriter Dudley Nichols's lyrical adaptation of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill, distilled into one movingly expressive human drama.

  9. ‎The Long Voyage Home (1940) directed by John Ford

    John Ford's Long Voyage Home is a bleak, dark and utterly gorgeous piece of work. An episodic weaving together of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill that explores the life of rough and tumble merchant ship sailors in the early days of World War II. Thomas Mitchell completely owns this movie as the hot headed Driscoll who'll cheerfully ...

  10. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    The Long Voyage Home is a film directed by John Ford with John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Ward Bond .... Year: 1940. Original title: The Long Voyage Home. Synopsis: Aboard the freighter Glencairn, the lives of the crew are lived out in fear, loneliness, suspicion and cameraderie. The men smuggle drink and women aboard, fight with each other, spy on each other, ...You can watch The ...

  11. The Long Voyage Home

    Other articles where The Long Voyage Home is discussed: John Wayne: Ford's The Long Voyage Home (1940), a film based on several Eugene O'Neill one-act plays, featured one of Wayne's most praised performances from the early years of his stardom and offered further evidence of his commanding screen presence.

  12. THE SCREEN; 'The Long Voyage Home,' Magnificent Drama of the Sea, at

    For "The Long Voyage Home" is a story of men, of eternal suffering in a perilous trade, of life and tragic death in the dirty, heroic little cargo boats that sail the wet seas 'round.At the 48th ...

  13. The Long Voyage Home (1940) Film Review

    The Long Voyage Home (1940) John Ford spent a lot of time on the set of F.W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise studying the director's methods, particularly compositions, camera movement, and lighting. According to reviewer Allan Peach, "Expressionistic elements are common in many Ford films after 1927, but The Informer (1935) and The Long ...

  14. The Long Voyage Home 1940, directed by John Ford

    Beginning with an erotic skirmish with exotic island maidens, and ending with the death of Mitchell, shanghaied while drunkenly rescuing Wayne (oddly cast as an innocent Swedish farm-lad) from the ...

  15. The Long Voyage Home

    The Long Voyage Home. One of the finest of all the movies that deal with life at sea, and one of the most successful of all attempts to put Eugene O'Neill on film—perhaps because the director ...

  16. Story of the Week: The Long Voyage Home

    The first to appear in print was The Long Voyage Home in the October 1917 issue of The Smart Set; it's the only one of the four plays in the series to take place on land, in "the bar of a low dive on the London water front.". It premiered on November 2 at The Playwrights' Theatre in New York. For the publication rights, the magazine ...

  17. The Long Voyage Home

    The Long Voyage Home. The Long Voyage Home is a 1940 American drama film directed by John Ford. The hard-living, international crew of a British merchant ship become unnerved as they cross the Atlantic during the first year of World War II. Suspicions mount when the ship takes on explosives, but loss of crew members during stormy seas, German ...

  18. Category:The Long Voyage Home

    Publication date. 1940. 8 October 1940 (New York City) 22 November 1940 (United States of America) Duration. 105 min. Cost. 682,495 United States dollar. Authority file.

  19. Gregg Toland

    Gregg Wesley Toland, A.S.C. (May 29, 1904 - September 28, 1948) was an American cinematographer known for his innovative use of techniques such as deep focus, examples of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, and The Long Voyage Home (both, 1940).

  20. The Long Voyage Home

    Directed by John Ford • 1940 • United States Starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, Ian Hunter Shot in stunning chiaroscuro by master cinematographer Gregg Toland, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME is John Ford's and screenwriter Dudley Nichols's lyrical adaptation of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill, distilled into one movingly expressive human drama.

  21. The Long Voyage Home : John Ford

    The Long Voyage Home by John Ford. Publication date 1940 Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International Topics Cinema Language English. No copyright infringement Addeddate 2022-04-29 21:45:21 Identifier the-long-voyage-home-ford Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4