Parritt to Larry: "I'm scared of him, honest. There's something not human behind his damned grinning and kidding". He's talking about Hickey, and the audience feels the truth in the remark. I don't feel at ease at any moment of the play when Hickey is holding forth, supposedly forcing the others to face their self-deluding. He REALLY protests too much. I think the play is really about Larry--the emotional center of it seems to be him--and the time spent with Hickey's raillery is just wasted for me.
The second criticism: there are just too many characters demanding our attention. Joe, Jimmy Tomorrow, the Captain and the General, Chuck and Cora: why must we be interested in them? O'Neill had a bad habit of writing tracts for our times, fleshed out with superfluous characters.
With all this said, I did enjoy the acting very much. Myron McCormick is splendid as Larry, just cynical enough to make his distance from Parritt believable. Robards uses his voice better than I remember from his other film roles. Tom Pedi as Rocky is roly-poly fun and menace. James Broderick wails and mumbles through his part as Willie, the sickest of the booze hounds. Only Redford seems ill at ease; he knows Parritt is a creep, but he can't do anything with creeps.
The second criticism: there are just too many characters demanding our attention. Joe, Jimmy Tomorrow, the Captain and the General, Chuck and Cora: why must we be interested in them? O'Neill had a bad habit of writing tracts for our times, fleshed out with superfluous characters.
With all this said, I did enjoy the acting very much. Myron McCormick is splendid as Larry, just cynical enough to make his distance from Parritt believable. Robards uses his voice better than I remember from his other film roles. Tom Pedi as Rocky is roly-poly fun and menace. James Broderick wails and mumbles through his part as Willie, the sickest of the booze hounds. Only Redford seems ill at ease; he knows Parritt is a creep, but he can't do anything with creeps.