The Long Voyage Home

This somewhat-forgotten John Ford entry is an underlooked gem. Dark, grim and downbeat, The Long Voyage Home is a fine anti-heroic drama, simply told and artistically expressed.

The SS Glencaim is a small British merchant vessel docked in South America when World War II breaks out. The vessel is assigned to deliver a cargo of high-explosives back to England. The return voyage is decidedly rocky: an American sailor, Yank (Ward Bond) is fatally injured in a storm, secretive Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter) is suspected of being a German spy, and German aircraft provide a danger. Swedish crewman Ole Hanson (John Wayne) just wants to get home and away from the war, but when the ship arrives in London he's nearly shanghaied onto service with another vessel. Crewmate Driscoll (Thomas Mitchell), a bluff, amiable Irishman, won't stand for this and leads the crew in a rescue attempt.

Aside from some raucous fisticuffs at the beginning, The Long Voyage Home is definitely not your typical Ford film. Working off a series of short plays by Eugene O'Neill (The Iceman Cometh), Ford creates an "anti-adventure film" where the usual maritime heroics are completely absent. Life at sea is monotonous and dangerous, especially with a war on, and the movie is a series of effective vignettes detailing the crew's travails and sacrifices. The film's atmosphere and tone are very much in tune with They Were Expendable, Ford's superior Navy epic celebrating futile heroism (or heroic futility?), but without even that film's cold comfort conclusion.

As expected, Ford provides marvelous direction. The movie is deliberately paced and drags in a few spots, but despite being mostly talk the movie's never boring. Gregg Toland's photography is astonishing, moody, expressive and capturing the fog-shrouded monotony and danger of life at sea. The big dramatic scenes are perfectly staged: Yank's death, the revelation about Smitty and the air raid are phenomenal, and the cruel finale is a real kick in the gut.

The film has an ensemble cast in the truest sense: every actor is good but none really stand out. John Wayne, fresh off Stagecoach, gets top-billing for a tiny role: he's practically an extra with a single big scene near film's end. Thomas Mitchell has probably the biggest role, chewing scenery with reckless abandon. Ford regular Ward Bond gets a meaty role, and Ian Hunter (The Adventures of Robin Hood) makes the most of his tiny part. Mildred Natwick (3 Godfathers) has an excellent scene with Wayne as a desperate hooker. John Qualen plays an early version of the Swedish Chef caricature he'd "perfect" in The Searchers, and it's no less annoying in this incarnation. Other Ford regulars - Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, the ubiquitous Jack Pennick - populate bit parts.

The Long Voyage Home is another solid entry in John Ford's CV. Along with other films of the time (Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath) it shows the director at the peak of his talents.