Very rarely does the transition from stage to screen improve a play. But The Long Voyage Home, aided by John Ford's deft direction, is one of the select few. Actually the picture, a series of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill, is more suited to the screen; few theatres can accommodate ships.

Having seen only two of O'Neill's plays on stage, my judgment is incomplete, but originals seem rather dull. Although they contain plenty of action, bombast and strained dialogue shoot through the short dramas. The motion picture, however, centers attention on the action and minimizes the number of boring or vapid lines. As result, The Long Voyage Home, while still spotty, flows along with grace and often force.

Unformmatcly the transitions between the picture's different stories consist of fade outs where the curtain the film rather episodic. With the same characters throughout (it is not a collection of unrclated stories as was Maugham's Trio), there is some unity, but the ship alone holds the picture together as a sort of picaresque hero, and a ship lacks vital interest as a hero.

The cast is deservedly well known, mostly playing roles that have since become types for them. Barry Fitzgerald signed on board as a comic Irish cook, and Thomas Mitchell as a gruff Irish bully-with-golden-heart. In the company of such genuine specimens Ward Bond changes nationality, if not character, and is a tough, simple-hearted swabbie named yank. The only real surprise is John Wayne who plays Ole. Replete with standard grin and a Swedish accent, Wayne is amazingly good, doing his part with a skill and delicacy that somehow rubbed off by the time he got around to whipping the Japanese army.

John Ford deserves much credit for the smoothness and interest of the formerly dull plays. He keeps the pace fast and stresses action to break up the long stretches of dialogue. His lurking camera finds unexpected stances and hiding places from which to catch the actors in their ship hoard and barroom life. Full force of storms and brawls come to the audience through the mobile camera eye, and the feeling of close shipboard quarters presses in as a man lies dying in a narrow bunk.

Had all the barnacles of boredom been scraped from the original plays, The Long Voyage Home would be a first-rate picture. As it is, a top director and expert character actors go a long way toward making O'Neill a successful screen writer.