The Sea Gull (Sidney Lumet, 1968)

The Sea Gull is a sensitive, well-made and abstractly interesting period pic. Downbeat eternal verities - frustration, unrequited love, etc. - are projected admirably by a cast featuring James Mason, Simone Signoret (both in memorable performances), Vanessa Redgrave and David Warner.

Setting is a rural Russian house, where bailiff Ronald Radd, his wife Eileen Herlie and daughter Kathleen Widdoes seek to create a pleasant climate for the final years of Harry Andrews, a retired official who apparently has endured a life of frustration. Andrews herein is a clichéd, crotchety old fool. His performance is the poorest one in the film.

Signoret, Andrews' sister, has descended for a visit, trailed by her current lover, Mason, a popular hack writer. Redgrave, a neighborhood girl, becomes entranced with Mason.

The deliberate adherence to the Chekhov's script necessarily retains the somewhat old-fashioned character motivations and plot structures.

Director Sydney Lumet has created an appropriately somber mood.