Mourning Becomes Electra

The sheer audacity in attempting to boil down O'Neill's American version of a Greek tragedy from nearly six hours to just three rates a high mark for the effort. Not so for the result. It took nearly 16 years to get the play from the stage (where the leads were played by Alice Brady, Alla Nazimova, and Earle Larimore) to the screen, where the same roles were done by Russell, Paxinou, and Redgrave. The picture lost almost $3 million when all quarters were heard from. Nichols attempted to compress the trilogy of "The Homecoming," "The Hunted," and "The Haunted" and remove the seams, but this is such a heavy story that it's hard to watch at any length. O'Neill's story...