Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

HotToastyRag If you're up for a two-and-a-half hour disturbing, heavy domestic drama starring Rosalind Russell and Katina Paxinou, you're a better man than I. I fell asleep twice during Mourning Becomes Electra, the film that was supposed to win Roz her Best Actress Oscar; a surprising upset brought Loretta Young to the podium instead for her silly, likable role in The Farmer's Daughter. I don't usually like Roz, so it's understandable that I couldn't make it all the way through, but even if you appreciate her style of dramatics, you won't like this movie. Eugene O'Neill wrote the original play, but he based it off the Greek tragedy Oresteia, so you should know what you're getting into. At the start of the story, Roz and her mother Katina are waiting for her father, Raymond Massey, and her brother, Michael Redgrave, to return home from the Civil War. Even though Kirk Douglas is courting Roz, she has feelings for Leo Genn-what will she do when she sees Leo kissing her mother? I know, that plot synopsis sounds pretty disgusting and uncomfortable, but believe me, that's only the start of the gross-and I mean that in both definitions of the word-dysfunction of the film. Mourning Becomes Electra is hands-down the most disturbing old movie I've ever seen. I had to split it up over the course of three days, because I kept falling asleep or feeling nauseous. It doesn't matter that Rosalind Russell had to perform an extremely heavy, emotional role; she shouldn't have won the Oscar in 1948. No one should have been rewarded for being a part of this film. It's horrible.Katina Paxinou gave one of the worst performances in film history. I understand why she was cast; Hollywood must have thought they were being clever in casting a Greek actress in a film based off a play based off a traditional Greek tragedy. But everyone else in the movie had an American accent, and the film took place in America after the Civil War-Katina's accent was never referenced or explained. Not only was it extremely difficult to understand what she's even saying, but she often put emphasis on the wrong words, and her melodramatic delivery made me continually cringe. She was supposed to be a beautiful, alluring woman that every man is in love with, but she was a repulsive, over-acting hag that would have been booed off the stage had she been in a live performance.

jacobs-greenwood Academy Award winning screenwriter Dudley Nichols also produced four films and directed three, this was the last time he did either; his previous effort in both capacities also featured Rosalind Russell in the title role, Sister Kenny (1946). For both efforts, the actress received Best Actress Oscar nominations, this being her third of four (unrewarded) nominations for her career. Nichols also wrote the screenplay from the Eugene O'Neill play. In addition to Russell, Michael Redgrave (whose character doesn't appear until the drama's second act, one hour into the movie) received his only Academy recognition, a Best Actor nomination.The story is basically an updated version of the classic Greek tragedy of Agamemnon, the commander who returned from Troy hungry for a renewed life with his spouse only to find that his wife has strayed with a younger man (that could be his own son). She poisons him and then (she and her lover) must suffer the wrath of her own son and daughter, who are then haunted by guilt and their own demons (including near incestuous jealousy) for their vengeful act.In this case, Raymond Massey plays Union General Ezra Mannon who's returned home from the Civil War to his loving daughter Lavinia aka 'Vinnie' (Russell), the titled Electra, with his injured son Orin (Redgrave). Shortly before he's murdered, Ezra learns that wife Christine (Katina Paxinou, looking quite a bit younger and more attractive than she did in her Academy Award winning Best Supporting Actress stint as Pilar in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)) is in love with the son of a former Mannon family maid that he'd thrown out of the house for diddling his brother; Leo Genn plays Adam Brant. The drama plays out in three overwrought and overlong acts: The Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted.Also in the cast are Kirk Douglas (in his third film) as Peter Niles, who courts Lavinia, Nancy Coleman as his sister Hazel Niles, who's in love with Orin, Henry Hull as the Mannon's 40 year groundskeeper (that does what he's told) Seth Beckwith, Sara Allgood as a landlady, and Thurston Hall as the family doctor named Blake. Additionally, Elisabeth Risdon, Erskine Sanford, and Jimmy Conlin also appear briefly.

Cheryl Vargas I was dying to see this movie, it was on my "must see" list. I ADORE Rosalind Russell, but this time she was miss-cast. Watching the movie, in every scene, her age sticks out like a sore thumb. There are just too many dialogue moments that don't apply to someone who looks 35 years old, "Go to bed Lavinia", her father says. And I'm thinking to myself, she's old enough not to have a curfew. Yeah, this was a role for an 18-23 year old.Love Rosalind in Auntie Mame, Roughly Speaking, Night Must Fall, The Women...well, the list goes on. But someone blew the casting here. Great movie, great characters and storyline.

mikelmike77 Very interesting film , updated from a Greek tragedy . A fascinating study of human behavior , Michael Redgrave is fantastic as Orin , the brother hovering on the edge of madness and guilt , and Rosalind Russel is every bit his equal as the conniving sister , trying to escape her fate , but unable to shake her demons . Orin finds release in death , Vinny in self-exile and a perminent state of mourning . But the star of this film is the well written interaction between these two and the fabulous execution of that written word by the two actors . It also gives insight into the times , the civil war era and how situations were handled or mishandled then . Can't miss entertainment !!