eugene oneill 4 and a half hour 1927 play bring to the screen in less than two hour . the play combination of symbolic dialogue and gothic melodrama hasn not age very well and the cast have some difficulty with it and especially norma shearer nina and ralph morgan marsden . clark gable a ned darrell come off well but mostly because his be a gruff character not give to the philosophical musing of the others which better fit gable range . once the plot settle down to the love quadrangle and the audience adjust to the voiceover asides the film do become more enjoyable . the technique use here for the aside be another problem . on stage the action froze while the actor speak their thought to the audience . here theyre do a voiceovers . you would think that would work well but since the action no longer freeze the actor be force to pause speaking and grimace at the camera to match the emotion in their thought . plus it difficult for any movie buff to watch this film and not think of groucho marx hilarious parody version in animal cracker . add to these drawback be some cut make for censorship reason ( nina promiscuity be soft peddle and there be no mention of her get the abortion that be more central in the play ) and a wretched score ( uncredited ) that sound like background music to a turn of the century weepie . oneill call this film a dreadful hash of attempted condensation and idiotic censorship and and although strange interlude be nowhere near as great a his later the iceman cometh and long day journey into night and it certainly deserve good than this .