... he was just the lit match that set the kindling afire. This is the most messed up family ever. Christine Mannon has always hated her husband Ezra Mannon, a general in the Union army at the time of the Civil War. Outside of casualties the Mannons have nothing to fear from the war since they are safely in New England, far from the actual fighting. But they actually have their own civil war brewing. On top of Christine hating her husband since she married him, begging the question WHY did she marry him, Christine has a much younger lover, sea captain Adam Brant (Leo Genn). Apparently the daughter in the family, Lavinia (Rosalind Russell) fancied Brant at one time herself, so she could hate her mom because she is betraying her father, or she could just be jealous that a woman in late middle age beat her out of a beau.Brant began just toying with Christine because he wanted revenge for something the Mannons did to his mother years ago, although the toying turned to love. Plus it turns out Brant is a Mannon himself, but it is a part of himself that he despises. But Christine knows about the shunned relative angle and is still not dissuaded.Then dad and son return from war, and it turns out that there is something pretty weird about the father/daughter and the mother/son love dynamic going on here. It doesn't look paternal and it does not look platonic. Christine switches Adam's heart pills with poison and kills him so she can be free to be with Brant. However, Lavinia discovers her scheme and the poison pills. Rather than turn her mother over to the authorities for murder, she convinces her brother (Michael Redgrave as reluctant war hero and mama's boy Orin) to mete out their own brand of personal justice rather than send mom to the gallows. The problem is, Lavinia is more like her mother than she would ever admit, Orin is a very unstable partner in her scheme, and Christine does not think that Lavinia's idea of justice is all that it is cracked up to be.Add in Lavinia's rather naïve yet devoted suitor with high moral standards, played by a - believe it or not - sixth billed Kirk Douglas, and you have a recipe for disaster.If this sounds like a Greek tragedy, actually it is. But you know what, I was glued to to the screen taking it all in. I felt like a voyeur invading this family's most personal crazy secrets. It was just like when the brother and sister were on the boat looking down, like voyeurs, into the galley and seeing their mother in the arms of her adulterous lover. The movie grabs your attention and keeps it for 2 1/2 hours.Highly recommended especially for Michael Redgrave and Rosalind Russell who, though she was just shy of 40, did not look too old for the part. Michael Redgrave takes a wild ride of emotions and has you believing every one of them. Oh, and Kirk, run! Run far away from these people! No scrape that Burt Lancaster or the Duke ever got you into was as dangerous as these Mannons!

The writing, direction and acting have joined forces into creating one of the most ludicrous concoctions I have ever witnessed. I love classic films and theatre and the acting greats involved usually do a fine jobs in other films,but this is their exception. Rosalind Russell who is an exceptional pro winds up being a prototype for Carol Burnett's Norma Desmond creation with Redgrave playing wide eyed mad as well! The Greek actress playing the mother Christine greedily chews the scenery and her moaning is a hoot ("Mother, don't moan.")! Even young Kirk Douglas tries to rise above the material, but soon is weighted down by the "melo-hammy" play, He does look quite relieved to leave his final scene. I was half expecting to see the wonderful Henry Hull turn to the camera and say,"You folks are lucky-you can leave..I have to stay here." If you want to have some real unintended laughs then I suggest this creaking groaner!

Bette Davis is famous for saying, "Fasten your safety belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride." More appropriate here is, "Put on your hip boots, you're going to have to wade through a lot of muck", Particularly if you watch the original 173 minute version shown on TCM.There are lots of reasons this film was such a financial disaster for RKO. For one thing, the matte artwork for many exterior shots is about the most fake looking I have ever seen in any film...and 1947 was not exactly the Stone Age. And, at least in parts, some of Rosiland Russell's acting seems to belong back in silent films (take for example her movement and looks when she sees an inopportune tryst of her mother's very early in the film).To be honest, there is only one performance here that I found had quality -- that of Raymond Massey. I'd have to say brilliant, in fact.Michael Redgrave is preposterous in this film. I know he became a great actor...it must have been after this film! Leo Genn was quite good.Katina Paxinou was a Greek actress that didn't translate well on the American scene. She is not tolerable in this film, Henry Hull always does nicely, and Kirk Douglas has a small part here.I know that the original play that this film is based upon was written by Eugene O'Neill. And I don't know much about O'Neill. But if this film is representative of O'Neill, then PU. As esteemed critic Bosley Crowther wrote at the time, the film is "a static and tiresome show", and that's putting it politely. This is probably the hammiest movie I have ever seen. If they showed this film in a movie theater today, the audience would be laughing out loud. Give me Lillian Hellman any day!

I found this DVD at Borders last week. I had not known a movie version of MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA had ever been made. I took it off the shelf assuming this would be something from about 1970, when a fair number of stage plays were being filmed. That this was from 1947 surprised me. I bought it and was again surprised to find that, unlike almost any film from that era, the actors didn't speak three times faster than people actually do in life. Rosalind Russell is perfect in this uncharacteristic role. Usually she plays wise-cracking sophisticates. Here she plays it straight, which works beautifully. I absolutely see her as this character. Michael Redgrave gives a harrowing performance as her tortured brother, a recently returned Civil War veteran. He delivers one of O'Neill's greatest speeches, a recitation of his moment of military triumph. It's gut-wrenching. I haven't been able to find where this was filmed, but, if it was filmed in Hollywood I have to say I think there was a large British presence in this production. The miking is good, which makes me think it was filmed in Hollywood, British sound being wretched until the advent of James Bond, but the opening credits, shown over a roiling sea, are not in the manner of Hollywood's opening credits in 1947, which are usually shown on placards. It apparently played only briefly and had its last act cut. The IMAGE DVD seems to restore this movie to its original length. (Another review on IMDb says that, after the opening a segment called THE HUNTED was cut. My IMAGE DVD has a segment called THE HAUNTED. However it's spelled, the cut segment is back.) O'Neill is a rough dose of salts, but with serious actors, his plays are very moving. In the hands of a director who knows how to make use of film, a great play can be made into a fine movie, and this is such a movie. I recommend this highly.