American Playhouse (TV Series) Strange Interlude: Part 1 (1988) User Reviews

Fascinating experimental work

[wvmcl · 8/10 · 21 December 2005]

This is one of Eugene O'Neill's most fascinating plays, and must have packed a real wallop when it was first staged (as a two-part work) in 1928. O'Neill has the characters speak their inner thoughts as well as their dialog. Unlike the other reviewer, I had little trouble distinguishing the two. But it might have been worthwhile to explain it in a prologue for viewers not aware of what O'Neill was doing in this play.

This TV version contains an almost complete rendering of this very long play, which is seldom staged nowadays. So this may be your only chance to see it in something like its original form. The cast is uniformly superb. Glenda Jackson seems a bit old for Nina at first, until you realize that the play covers around 30 years and that she will be an old woman by the end. The late David Dukes is particularly good as Nina's "sperm donor." In all, engrossing and unique drama. I hope it will come out on DVD soon.

Unexpectedly, very interesting.

[berrin · 9 April 2000]

This is a very interesting film about how even though people try to do the best thing for themselves and for others around them by using the available information, the result may be unexpected due to the unknowns. Nina loses her fiancee Gordon in WWI, without ever being together with him. She decides to become a nurse, to commit her life to injured soldiers, and thereby to Gordon. Her father, uncle Charlie, a doctor at the hospital all want the best for her, and give advices to her to make her happy in the long run. However, the advices they give her bring her lots of dilemmas and put her into unforeseen positions. I enjoyed this piece overall. It became somewhat boring towards the end. The characters' thoughts are expressed by making them talk to themselves, and sometimes this may become confusing and irritating. (There are points where it is difficult to differentiate whether someone is talking to oneself, or with others). Still, even though I rented this one from the library without any expectations, enjoyed it very much. I should also mention that Kenneth Branagh's screen time is about 3 minutes, and at the end of the movie.