night lights
long days journey into night
previously filmed by director sidney lumet in 1962 eugene oneills gloomy pulitzer prize winning play long days journey into night is given a vibrant videotaped treatment by jonathan miller . set on one hot august day and night in 1912 the story concerns the tragic tyrone family based as any american literature student will tell on oneills own star crossed clan . the four principals include james tyrone jack lemmon a once great actor who compromised his talent by barnstorming all over the country in a tired melodrama and by consuming great quantities of alcohol ; james wife mary bethel leslie a morphine addict who lives in a world of dreams and delusions ; oldest son jamie kevin spacey a drunken hellraiser ; and sensitivetuberculosis ridden younger son edmund peter gallagher the eugene oneill counterpart . as originally staged long days journey into night was a long journey indeed running close to four hours . director miller wisely prunes the text down to the essentials and with equal wisdom packs plenty of visual dynamics into an otherwise excessively verbose piece . long days journey into night was first telecast april 11 1987 over the showtime cable service . hal erickson all movie guide . br br audio interview with kevin spacey and director jonathan miller . br br audio interview with kevin spacey and director jonathan miller .