eugene oneill be acclaim by some a america lead playwright and but for thing like the iceman cometh and long day journey into night and the emperor jones . strange interlude be a piece of experimentation he concoct where the character on stage and look aside to the audience and say what they really be think and then resume conversation . it be a nine hour production with a dinner break on broadway and so you can safely assume a lot have be sacrifice here . for the screen the voice over regard the thought be use for all the character . it probably be a technique well suit to the screen . sir laurence olivier do very well with it in his version of hamlet . but bill shakespeare give olivier a lot well story than oneill give his player in this instance . player like clark gable and norma shearer and ralph morgan and may robson and etc . be a lot more animate in most of their film than they be in strange interlude . the story take place over a 20 year period . norma shearer be a young woman whose intend be kill in world war i. she start play around quite a bit and although that part be not show in this version . she make the acquaintance of alexander kirkland and his friend clark gable . she also have a a perennial suitor and ralph morgan and a friend of her father henry b. walthall . she marry kirkland and but then be warn by his mother may robson and show that insanity gallop in that family to quote another literary work . since kirkland want kid and shearer and robson think kirkland train will slip the track if he doesn not get one and gable be recruit for breeding purpose . of course you can see all the complication this can cause and oneill explore them all . gable be so terribly miscast in an oneill production and but he be an up and come player at mgm and do what they tell him . shearer do what she can to lift a very dreary story and but she seem defeat at the start . best in the film be possibly robson who put some real bite in her dialog . strange interlude run for 426 showing on broadway in 1928 1929 and star glenn anders and lynn fontanne in the gable and shearer part . perhaps no one could really have save the film because two year earlier and groucho marx lampoon the stuffing out of it in animal cracker . after see what he do and i do not think the movie go public take it too seriously . and since it not the best of oneill and neither could i .