The Iceman Cometh (1973 film)

Last updated

The Iceman Cometh
Poster of the movie The Iceman Cometh.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Screenplay by Thomas Quinn Curtiss
Based on The Iceman Cometh
by Eugene O'Neill
Produced by Ely Landau
Starring Lee Marvin
Fredric March
Robert Ryan
Jeff Bridges
Bradford Dillman
CinematographyRalph Woolsey
Edited by Harold F. Kress
Distributed by American Film Theatre
Release date
  • October 29, 1973 (1973-10-29) [1]
Running time
239 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$800,000 [2]

The Iceman Cometh is a 1973 American drama film directed by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay, written by Thomas Quinn Curtiss, is based on Eugene O'Neill's 1946 play of the same name. The film was produced by Ely Landau for the American Film Theatre, which from 1973 to 1975 presented thirteen film adaptations of noted plays. [3]

Contents

The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but it wasn't entered into the main competition. [4]

The film, 3 hours 59 minutes in length, had two intermissions.

This was the last film for both Robert Ryan and Fredric March. March developed prostate cancer in 1970, causing him to retire from acting. Ryan died before the film's release.

Plot

The film begins in a bar with a group of regulars. All are satisfied with their present drunken state. 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. At first the regulars reject their pipe dreams, but in the end reject Hickey, who eventually admits he murdered his wife. After Hickey is taken away by the authorities, the regulars label him insane rather than deal with their own weaknesses and return to their previous lives.

Cast

Production

Director John Frankenheimer later said:

We found the most difficult thing was to cut it. We cut 1 hour and 20 minutes out of the original, but by the time we'd finished it we'd put back in an hour. It was a marvelous movie – up til now (1974) my best experience. We were like a repertory company; we never wanted it to end. I tried to show Hickey as sane and not the way I've seen him interpreted, as insane. I think you have to live your life without illusions, not with them. Pauline Kael said in her review that you only have to look at photos of O'Neill to see this was a face with no illusions. [5]

Reception

Roger Ebert gave the film his highest possible grade of four stars and wrote: "The play was clearly too difficult to be done as an ordinary commercial movie, but now it has been preserved, with a series of brilliant performances and a virtuoso directing achievement, in what has to be a definitive film version." [6] Ebert ranked The Iceman Cometh fifth on his year-end list of the best films of 1973. [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 ... It requires stamina, of course, to sit through four hours, but the experience is very special." [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 ... Even with editing, John Frankenheimer's filmed version of the play runs four hours plus two intermissions. But O'Neill was right and the film, like the play, holds its commanding grip on the viewer over the whole distance." [11]

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote that the play "has been given a straightforward, faithful production in handsome dark-toned color" that "Frankenheimer directed fluently and unobtrusively, without destroying the conventions of the play." [12]

The film holds a score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes based on nine reviews. [13]

Awards

Robert Ryan won a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, National Board of Review Award for Best Actor and a Special Award from the National Society of Film Critics for his performance as Larry Slade.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Lady Sings the Blues</i> (film) 1972 film by Sidney J. Furie

Lady Sings the Blues is a 1972 American biographical musical drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie about jazz singer Billie Holiday, loosely based on her 1956 autobiography which, in turn, took its title from Holiday's song. It was produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross, in her feature film debut, portrayed Holiday, alongside a cast including Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, and Scatman Crothers. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973, including Best Actress for Diana Ross.

<i>Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore</i> 1974 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the Southwestern United States in search of a better life. Kris Kristofferson, Billy "Green" Bush, Diane Ladd, Valerie Curtin, Lelia Goldoni, Vic Tayback, Jodie Foster, Alfred Lutter, and Harvey Keitel appear in supporting roles.

<i>Quintet</i> (film) 1979 film by Robert Altman

Quintet is a 1979 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Robert Altman. It stars Paul Newman, Brigitte Fossey, Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman and Nina Van Pallandt.

<i>Day for Night</i> (film) 1973 film by François Truffaut

Day for Night is a 1973 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by François Truffaut. The metafictional and self-reflexive film chronicles the troubled production of a melodrama, and the various personal and professional challenges of the cast and crew. It stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Truffaut himself.

<i>Prick Up Your Ears</i> 1987 British film

Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay.

<i>Carnal Knowledge</i> (film) 1971 film by Mike Nichols

Carnal Knowledge is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jules Feiffer. It stars Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, and Ann-Margret, with Rita Moreno and Cynthia O'Neal.

<i>The Heartbreak Kid</i> (1972 film) 1972 film by Elaine May

The Heartbreak Kid is a 1972 American romantic black comedy film directed by Elaine May and written by Neil Simon, starring Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin, Audra Lindley, Eddie Albert, and Doris Roberts. It is based on the short story "A Change of Plan", written by Bruce Jay Friedman and first published in Esquire in 1966.

<i>The Gambler</i> (1974 film) 1974 film

The Gambler is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Hutton. Caan's performance was widely lauded and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

<i>Funny Lady</i> 1975 musical film directed by Herbert Ross

Funny Lady is a 1975 American biographical musical comedy-drama film and the sequel to the 1968 film Funny Girl. The film stars Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall and Ben Vereen.

The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. It has subsequently been adapted for the screen multiple times. The work tells the story of a number of alcoholic dead-enders who live together in a flop house above a saloon and what happens to them when the most outwardly "successful" of them embraces sobriety.

<i>Personal Best</i> (film) 1982 American drama film by Robert Towne

Personal Best is a 1982 American drama film written, produced and directed by Robert Towne. It stars Mariel Hemingway and real-life track star Patrice Donnelly, along with Scott Glenn as the coach. The film is about the lesbian relationship between two track-and-field teammates whose relationship might interfere with their performance.

<i>French Connection II</i> 1975 film by John Frankenheimer

French Connection II is a 1975 American neo-noir action thriller film starring Gene Hackman and directed by John Frankenheimer. It is a sequel to the 1971 film The French Connection, and continues the story of the central character, Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, who travels to Marseille in order to track down French drug-dealer Alain Charnier, played by Fernando Rey, who escaped at the end of the first film. Hackman and Rey are the only returning cast members.

<i>The Fury</i> (film) 1978 film by Brian De Palma

The Fury is a 1978 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Amy Irving, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, and Andrew Stevens. The screenplay by John Farris was based on his 1976 novel of the same name.

<i>Thieves Like Us</i> (film) 1974 film by Robert Altman

Thieves Like Us is a 1974 American crime film, set in the United States of the 1930s. It was directed by Robert Altman and starred Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Edward Anderson, which also supplied source material for the 1948 film They Live by Night, directed by Nicholas Ray. The Altman film sticks much closer to the book. The supporting cast includes Louise Fletcher and Tom Skerritt.

Slither is a 1973 American comedy thriller film directed by Howard Zieff and starring James Caan. Caan plays an ex-convict, one of several people trying to find a stash of stolen money. Peter Boyle and Sally Kellerman co-star. Slither was the first screenplay by W.D. Richter.

<i>The Arrangement</i> (film) 1969 film directed by Elia Kazan

The Arrangement is a 1969 American drama film directed by Elia Kazan, based upon his 1967 novel of the same title.

<i>Childs Play</i> (1972 film) 1972 film by Sidney Lumet

Child's Play is a 1972 American drama-mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet. It stars James Mason, Robert Preston and Beau Bridges. The screenplay by Leon Prochnik is based on the 1970 play of the same title by Robert Marasco.

<i>Drive, He Said</i> 1971 film by Jack Nicholson

Drive, He Said is a 1971 American independent film directed by Jack Nicholson, in his directorial debut, and starring William Tepper, Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Robert Towne and Henry Jaglom. Based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Jeremy Larner, the film follows a disenchanted college basketball player who is having an affair with a professor's wife, as well as dealing with his counterculture roommate's preoccupation with avoiding the draft in the Vietnam War. The film features supporting performances by David Ogden Stiers, Cindy Williams, and Michael Warren. The screenplay was adapted by Larner and Nicholson, and included uncredited contributions from Terrence Malick.

<i>Streamers</i> (film) 1983 film directed by Robert Altman

Streamers is a 1983 American film adapted by David Rabe from his play of the same name. The film was directed by Robert Altman and produced by Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau, who later produced The Thin Red Line. The cast includes David Alan Grier as Roger, Mitchell Lichtenstein as Richie, Matthew Modine as Billy, Michael Wright as Carlyle, George Dzundza as Cokes, and Guy Boyd as Rooney.

<i>Life Itself</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Life Itself is a 2014 American biographical documentary film about Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch. The film is based on Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The 41st Telluride Film Festival hosted a special screening of the film on August 28, 2014. Magnolia Pictures released the film theatrically in the United States and simultaneously via video on demand platforms on July 4, 2014.

References

  1. ↑ "The Iceman Cometh – Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . American Film Institute . Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  2. ↑ Kilday, Gregg (October 21, 1973). "Movies: Frankenheirmer's "Iceman': Another Chance for U.S.". Los Angeles Times . p. q23. ProQuest   157474126.
  3. ↑ Benson, Raymond (April 16, 2009). "Remember...The American Film Theater". Cinema Retro . Archived from the original on June 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: The Iceman Cometh". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  5. ↑ Blume, Mary (September 1, 1974). "Fathering a 'Connection' Offspring". Los Angeles Times. p. m20.
  6. ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 10, 1973). "The Iceman Cometh". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (2006). Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert . University of Chicago Press. p.  443. ISBN   9780226182018.
  8. ↑ Canby, Vincent (November 11, 1973). "The 'Iceman' Cometh Too Close". The New York Times. Section 2, p. 1.
  9. ↑ "Film Reviews: The Iceman Cometh". Variety . October 24, 1973. 16.
  10. ↑ Siskel, Gene (December 10, 1973). "Iceman Cometh". Chicago Tribune . Section 2, p. 27.
  11. ↑ Champlin, Charles (October 29, 1973). "'Iceman' Launches Unique Film Series". Los Angeles Times . Part IV, p. 1.
  12. ↑ Kael, Pauline (November 5, 1973). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . 149.
  13. ↑ "The Iceman Cometh". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved May 28, 2019.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.