I caught this film on TCM about six months ago and recorded it on my DVR. I loved it! "Mourning Becomes Electra" made in 1947, is long, at just about three hours. At first glance, Rosalind Russell (at age 40) is a bit long in the tooth to play Lavinia; but once you get past that, she is quite good in the part. The scenes between Russell and Katina Paxinou (playing Russell's mother, Christine) were mesmerizing. Michael Redgrave (playing the son Orrin) is a bit stiff in the first part of the movie, but once he goes "crazy" with guilt in the last part, he is brilliant. Raymond Massey, playing the father, is in the film only a short time, but is memorable as Ezra, the war weary husband to Christine. A young Kirk Douglas is good too as Lavina's suitor. This film has it all - murder, greed, dark family secrets, revenge, lust. It is too bad this film is sadly forgotten. It flopped when it opened in 1947 - probably too long and involved for audiences a that time. And too bad Rosalind Russell did not win the Oscar for it - what an injustice. Russell had been considered the favorite to win, but a long shot nominee, Loretta Young won for "The Farmer's Daughter" a far lesser film than this one, in my opinion.
