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

Mary Carewe

Bing Conley

Jane Crowley

Carmen D'Antonio

Lowell Drew

Soledad Gonzales

Guy Kingsford

Tina Menard

Art Miles

Luanne Robb

Ky Robinson

Maureen Roden-Ryan

Lee Shumway

Leslie Sketchley

Roger Steele

Sammy Stein

John Ford

Dudley Nichols

Eugene O'Neill

Walter Wanger

Richard Hageman

Sherman Todd

Julia Heron

Wingate Smith

James Basevi

Gregg Toland

Drama

The Long Voyage Home

United Artists

Walter Wanger Productions

Argosy Productions Corporation

United States of America

CinemaSerf

John Wayne takes on the mantle of a Swedish sailor embarked on a freighter carrying a cargo of high explosives from the USA to the UK at that start of WWII. His "Olsen" character is maybe the most stable of the crew aboard the vessel as at least he has an home and an elderly mother to go home to. Just about everyone else on the ship is truly rudderless. They live their lives staving of the peril and the loneliness by drinking as much rum as they can lay their hands on and availing themselves of any ladies who will deign to come aboard. It's a tight community and though they fight and bicker, sometimes quite violently, they do look out for each other. They are led, after a fashion, by the wily "Driscoll" (Thomas Mitchell) but there is also Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald and Ian Hunter amongst their number who also have to deal with a gamut of emotions not often portrayed by men in Hollywood movies. There's a prevailing humanity in this John Ford adventure that's not so much an action on the high seas story as a psychological analysis of just how permanently toxic conditions can affect the mind sets of even the strongest of characters - and, let's face it, none of these men are exactly that! It also delivers quite a salutary lesson in just what constitutes masculinity in the face of prolonged uncertainty and is entirely devoid of any semblance of romance - unless you count Mildred Natwick's duplicitous "Freda" towards to end! It's quite a thoughtful piece that's maybe not quite what you'd expect.

English