Each are anticipating the arrival of a salesman named Hickey who has subsidized their pipe dreams, and each year celebrated owner Harry Hope's birthday.

But when Hickey arrives, he proclaims pipe dreams the enemy and begins to preach a better life in the name of friendship.

[7] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote in a less enthusiastic review that while watching the film "you get the feeling that you're being taken on a guided tour of one of the greatest American plays ever written, instead of seeing a screen adaptation with a life of its own.

"[8] Variety declared: "The excellence of the cast alone, and the fame of the work and its author make this filmed stage play worth the ticket ...

"[9] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded three-and-a-half stars out of four and stated: "The pleasures of this great play are so many and so strong that this frequently ordinary rendering of it on film leaves its power virtually undiminished.

"[10] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "'No play is too long that holds the interest of its audience,' Eugene O'Neill once told an interviewer ...