The Iceman Cometh

Plot synopsis:
It is set in Harry Hope's decidedly downmarket Greenwich Village saloon and rooming house, in 1912. The patrons, who are all men except for three women who are prostitutes, are all dead-end alcoholics who spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in each others' company and trying to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders. They tend to focus much of their anticipation on the semi-regular visits of the salesman Theodore Hickman, known to them as Hickey. When Hickey finishes a tour of his business territory, which is apparently a wide expanse of the East Coast, he typically turns up at the saloon and starts the party. He buys drinks for everyone, regales them with jokes and stories, and goes on a bender of several days until his money runs out. As the play opens, the regulars are expecting Hickey to turn up soon and plan to throw Harry a surprise birthday party. The entire first act introduces the various characters and shows them bickering amongst each other, showing just how drunk and delusional they are, all the while waiting for the arrival of Hickey.When Hickey finally arrives, his behavior throws the other characters into turmoil. He insists, with as much charisma as ever, but now lumped together with the zeal of a recent convert, that he sees life clearly now as never before, because he is sober. He hectors his former drinking companions that they are meaninglessly clinging to "pipe dreams" of some kind of positive change in their lives, while continuing to drown their sorrows exactly as before. (This is true; the ex-cop and carny hustler tell each other they will ask for their old jobs back on the police force or with the circus, the bartender says he will marry his prostitute girlfriend, etc., with seemingly no chance of any of this coming to pass. One character is even nicknamed Jimmy Tomorrow for his constant protestations.) Hickey wants the characters to cast away their delusions and embrace the hopelessness of their fates. He takes on this task with a near-maniacal fervor. How he goes about his mission, how the other characters respond, and their efforts to find out what has wrought this change in Hickey, take over four hours to resolve. Eventually, after most of the characters briefly leave the bar intending to show Hickey that they actually intend to accomplish their dreams, they all return and are even more upset with Hickey. Hickey, who had earlier told the other characters that his wife had died and that she was murdered, admits that he actually killed her. The police arrive, apparently called by Hickey himself, and Hickey justifies the murder in a dramatic monologue, saying that he did it out of love for her. The other characters conclude that Hickey is insane. Almost everyone remains at the bar. At the end of the play, the youngest character, Don, kills himself.

Tags: tragedy, avant garde

Review:
"The Iceman Cometh" was part of American Film Theatre, an experiment by producer Ely Landau.
But collapse it did, and the legal can-of-worms that it left, with the AFT's liabilities mixed with the rights of authors and their estates, is probably what keeps the films out of theatrical circulation and unavailable on video.In the case of most AFT productions, truth be told, that's no great loss.
But "The Iceman Cometh" is head-and-shoulders above all the rest put together (I suspect Landau knew it, too: that's no doubt why he put his best foot forward by making it the premiere production).
It is, in fact, a great movie -- a great play with a once-in-a-lifetime cast (it was Fredric March's last movie, and Robert Ryan died even before it came out) under the hand of a fine director (John Frankenheimer) who cut his teeth on live drama during the Golden Age of Television.Nobody connected with this film ever did better work -- not Ryan, who was brilliant and deserved a posthumous Oscar nomination for it; not March, one of Hollywood's greatest; none of the supporting cast; not even Jeff Bridges, who was only 23 and just at the beginning of his career (he once said that this was the film that made him realize he was serious about being an actor).A special case is Lee Marvin in the pivotal role of Hickey; he was much disparaged by critics at the time, but the tone was one ofhow-dare-this-B-movie-thug-lay-his-unclean-hands-on-a-role-that-belongs-now- and-forever-to-Jason-Robards.
An impartial viewing of Marvin in "The Iceman Cometh" shows he was entirely up to the role, even in the demanding, shattering 25-minute monologue where Hickey's self-loathing hypocrisy slips out against his will.
I've never forgotten it, and there are moments as fresh in my mind as if I saw them yesterday: Robert Ryan's anguish when he snarls, "You think you'll get me to admit that to myself?" and Marvin replies, "But you just did admit it, didn't you?"; Jeff Bridges's tormented profile as he sits at the table with Ryan trying to sort out his life; Fredric March as the doddering saloon-keeper venturing outside for the first time in years; Lee Marvin's ironic little dance as he calls himself "a happy-go-lucky slob like me." All, and so much more, unforgettable.I am dismayed to read in another comment here that there seems to be a three-hour version of this film out there somewhere.
See it ONLY in its 239-minute version, uninterrupted except for the two intermissions O'Neill intended (this was, by the way, the first movie with two intermissions) -- the cumulative power of the play demands it, and a movie this great deserves nothing less..
The Iceman Cometh is one great film to go out on for not one, but two of the best players ever.
In the case of Ryan he knew he was terminal and his performance has real poignancy.Of course you can't beat the material that was given to them and the rest of the cast.
It's been argued that The Iceman Cometh is the greatest work from the pen of America's greatest playwright Eugene O'Neill and I'm not going to argue the point.Some would give the honor of O'Neill's greatest play to Long Day's Journey Into Night.
It's owner Harry Hope played by Fredric March, is a former Tammany politician who's not set foot outside his establishment because he's in mourning over his late wife Bessie.The whole usual crowd of boarder/drinkers is awaiting the arrival of one of the regulars who apparently likes to go slumming there.
It's Hickey, a gladhanding traveling salesman Lee Marvin who spends like a Diamond Jim Brady and is generally the life of the party.
But it's a new and somber Hickey that comes to bar that day.A stranger arrives that day also, Jeff Bridges a young anarchist is on the run he says from the Pacific Coast where his mother among others has been picked up.
He's looking for an older leader of the movement Larry Slade who is played by Robert Ryan.
Marvin came in for some criticism at the time, attempting to serious a part and one that Jason Robards, Jr. was given acclaim for as his career role.
My favorite among the supporting parts is Bradford Dillman who plays a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law and for whatever reason, broke down and is now here.One member of the cast in this production was in the original Broadway cast when The Iceman Cometh premiered on Broadway in 1946.
If Bridges is a failed John Reed, O'Neill in Ryan's character of Larry Slade is looking back over the years when he drank in such places as Harry Hope's.
One of the films in the series that made my eyes pop was the promise to show Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh".
At four hours, it would task most theater companies, and Hickey's 25 minute soliloquy in the last act requires only the best actors to pull off.
Robert Ryan played his last film role here, and it was perfect.
I cannot imagine a better Larry.Fredric March played his last role here too, as Harry Hope.
Also an excellent performance.The question everyone would be asking about is Hickey, played by Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin did that perfectly.The tragedy of Hickey was that he was his own best customer.
Lee Marvin convinced me that he was Hickey, and in a play like this, that is quite an accomplishment.By the way, I discovered that this film is now available on VHF and DVD.
It was a wise decision on the part of producer Ely Landau- one of the only wise ones, as seems to be the history of the flawed ambition of the American Theater Company's movie adaptation productions- to hire John Frankenheimer as director.
He was known at the time in the movie industry for churning out high-charged action and adventure pictures (i.e. The Train, Grand Prix), and the occasional dark classic (The Manchurian Candidate), but he started as a television director, and with a play that ran like The Iceman Cometh there would be needed someone who could track the stinging, meaning-of-life-and-death dialog of O'Neill's play with the camera and not make it feel too 'stagey'.
It's a tale of a community, a quasi-family of bums and stragglers who're stuck more or less in a dive down in a seedy section of New York city in the early part of the century, awaiting the return of Hickey (Lee Marvin), a big force of a man who works in advertising.
There's a whole mix; there's Larry the ex-anarchist who's slowly dying inside (Robert Ryan); there's the depressed-cum-demanding kid (Jeff Bridges); Harry (March); the bartender/pimp; a black gambler; the "Limey"; the "Tarts"; and a crazy, rambling European screaming about socialism from time to time.And despite what some may have said comparing it to the 1960's made-for-TV version directed by Lumet (which I would love to see but is at the moment unavailable), I'd be hard-pressed to see a cast better than this.
Just a reminder: Lee Marvin can act, amazingly, and here he puts his chops to such a test that he rolls on to his climactic, half hour quasi-confession like it's the performance of his life.
And the bulk of the supporting cast are all wonderfully played and transposed, injecting life into a play that requires it to keep it going full throttle.It's not an easy thing to endure; it's four hours long, and for the first hour here and there one has to go through some minor early morning drunkenness from the characters, which isn't the least effective portion of the play as well as the film.
It would seem that March and Jason Robards had this relationship with Eugene O'Neill.
I've been told that March's performance in "Long Day's Journey into Night" in NYC in the 1950's was for the ages; this "ICEMAN" is another example.
Probably the two greatest career finishes in cinema history were March and Robert Ryan in this movie..
One in the series of the AFI's American Film Theatre series, it's a very faithful rendering of O'Neill's great play, with one original Broadway cast member (Tom Pedi's bartender) and loads of good casting throughout.
Fredric March's deluded Harry Hope, Robert Ryan's despairing ex- revolutionary Larry, Jeff Bridges' guilt-ridden student (a very difficult role for a young actor, especially in company as august as this) -- all have the ring of truth, and once you get used to the deliberate pacing, repetitive arguments and apologies, and startlingly frank language for a 1946 play, you're hooked.
As to Lee Marvin's Theodore Hickey: I was convinced up to his famous Act Three monologue, but he stumbles here, launching into badly calibrated fits of temper and back again.
Compare it against Jason Robards Jr.'s interpretation in the 1960 Sidney Lumet-directed TV version, and you'll see the difference between a good actor overreaching and a master in a role he was born to play.
(I also saw Kevin Spacey's attempt on the stage a few years ago: He played Hickey like Professor Harold Hill, all bluster and forced charisma, and it didn't work.) A depressing four hours, but worthy, and a rich sample of the actor's art..
While I don't cover much of the plot in this long film, I do try to explain the philosophy that underpins why a bunch of drunks are sitting around a bar, in 1912 New York, waiting for their friend, Hickey, to arrive.
Various search results confirmed O'Neill's religious background and his rejection of Catholicism while the following, from another online source, supports the idea of a religious underpinning for the play: "The Iceman Cometh, the most complex and perhaps the finest of the O'Neill tragedies, followed in 1939, although it did not appear on Broadway until 1946.
Laced with subtle religious symbolism, the play is a study of man's need to cling to his hope for a better life, even if he must delude himself to do so." So, yes, the play is about a lot of drunken loafers in various stages of despair, but they all represent the status of humanity, according to O'Neill: besotted by its own self-delusion and self-pity.Consider Hickey (Lee Marvin, in a truly great performance) as a modern rendition of the biblical John: the quintessential salesman, the sharp-talking shark who can tear you to pieces verbally, and the man who has the message that will save you; yes, you twelve, you drunken bums, sitting on your asses twenty-four-seven, drowning yourselves in your collective delusions.
Because, continues Hickey, I've seen the light and I've given up drinking  ah, well, except for the odd, important and festive occasion, y'know...So what could be more important than a birthday party for Harry Hope (Frederic March), the bar owner without hope, who hasn't stepped outside since his wife died twenty years earlier?
He and the other eleven men in that bar have been waiting and waiting for Hickey to come and lavish his eloquence (and drinking money, of course) upon them all.So, Hickey delivers, and then some, by convincing them all, except Larry Slade (Robert Ryan in his best-ever performance), in a moving - literally and figuratively - tirade during and after that Last Supper that Hickey will ever attend at this bar.
Hence, when Hickey meets his fate with the law, as did the biblical John, and the bums go back to their booze and their delusions, Larry is the only one to realize that he can no longer remain on "the grandstand of philosophical detachment" and must act now according to his convictions.Ironically, Larry's decision seals the fate of Don Paritt (a very young Jeff Bridges), a thoroughly unlikable coward and betrayer of lost causes.
And, as Larry savors his new found "freedom", such as it is, he looks through the window, and specifically away from his one-time drinking partners who are all now busily, once again, deluding themselves with drink.As the epitome of a modernity that rejects religion, Lee Marvin says it all, with consummate skill and panache; only Robert Ryan's Larry (O'Neill's alter ego), perhaps as a counterpoint to the biblical Peter, sees Hickey's message for what it truly is  a rejection of that "opium of the masses" as Karl Marx opined - and finally decides to act for himself.
The other ten 'apostles' at the bar are lost souls because it's sufficient for O'Neill, in my opinion, that Larry finally woke up; the rest of the world can live in Hell.What's missing  or, rather, who's missing  from this whole play is, of course, a Christ-figure.
Again, given O'Neill's view of religion as a delusion, that is entirely fitting.The setting  all in one long, dark and moody bar  the directing from Frankenheimer, the photography that uses long takes and medium closeups throughout, the production standards, all add up to an experience that is only rarely presented.
And, without a doubt, all of the actors performed to the peak, I think, of their prowess.Highly recommended for all theatre and cinema buffs.I must now, of course, search for a DVD of the 1960 version and prepare a comparative review..
Another small point for me was to see the wide range of actors strutting their stuff - possibly their ages spanned over sixty years from March to Bridges yet their convictions came through in such a way that I felt I was in that barroom with them and after all, is this not what theater should be.
As good as Lee Marvin's performance was, I also agree that the TV version is superior.
The Iceman Cometh also happens to be my favorite play.An aside; I believe that Jason Robards Jr. was not offered the part for the movie version because at that time, his alcoholism got the better of him.
Mr. Robards Jr. interpretation of Eugene O'Neill's plays have always been masterful.
I am convinced he was deeply hurt and has always regretted not being able to perform in the movie production.An experiment that I am sorry ended.This movie was an early part of a new production experiment in which the audience prepaid for the series (I am not sure of the series name but I seem to remember the American Film Theater or Institute).
The movie, which is excellent and highly recommended (though seeing a production of the play is even more effective), was vastly shorter (by an entire hour!) than I had remembered it being when I saw it twice back in the 70's and 80's.
The many, MANY, internal cuts in the three hour version (probably unnoticeable if you're not familiar with the play or the longer version of the movie) seriously undercuts the power of O'Neill's great play..
In 1973 when the American Film Institute's repertoire played in selected U.S. city theaters, "The Iceman Cometh" was a series standout.
The film retains its effectiveness today, due to O'Neill's insightful script, John Frankenheimer's excellent direction, and a fine cast, headed by Fredric March and Robert Ryan.
We are fortunate to have so beautiful a production of this classic American play preserved on film..
The American Film Theater made about 10 films of notable plays which retained the feel of seeing a theater production, but employed high caliber actors to fill the roles, and enhanced production values so you are not just simply watching actors perform on a stage.
"The Iceman Cometh" comes across better than most of the AFT productions.
The only weak performance is delivered by Jeff Bridges who was probably too young at the time to rise to the demands of O'Neill's work.
Lee Marvin Iceman is Just as Good as Jason Robards.
One reviewer opines that Jason Robards' Hickey is better than Lee Marvin's.
Also, Robards strains in The Iceman that you can see he is "acting." Marvin, on the other hand lets Hickey be Hickey.
One other thing makes the Iceman Cometh with Marvin far superior is the supporting class.
Robert Ryan, Bradford Dillman and Frederic March give magnificent, believable performances.
I think Robards believed all the reviews that said he was the ultimate O'Neill actor.
Also, in Long Day's Journey we have an ensemble play/movie that doesn't require Robards to strain to be the great O'Neill actor..
Lee Marvin does his best here, but is just not in the same class as Jason Robards who is perfect for the role.
There are other fine characters in the Marvin version which makes it definitely worth a look, however, nobody in the supporting cast does a bad job.
Fredric March and Robert Ryan are truly spectacular in their roles and really steal the show from Lee Marvin.
The Iceman Cometh is a great play, probably the best Eugene O'Neill ever wrote.
Lee Marvin's acting is too one dimensional to make this an excellent film..
I have to confess right off the bat that I love O'Neill and this play is certainly one of the grandest of them all, but I am also one of those that would have preferred to see Jason Robards in the Hickey role.
I did see Robards play it on kine scope and thought he was about as right as it gets.Having said that, Lee Marvin does admirably in this huge role.
Special praise goes to Robert Ryan, in one of his best roles ever and a very young and vibrant Jeff Bridges who comes through against a long array of seasoned performers.I do not think I have ever heard the word "pipedream" more.
Never having see "Iceman" live or on film, I watched the 1973 Lee Marvin version first, then the 1960 Jason Robards version, because I wanted to see the Lee Marvin approach without the bias of having previously seen the famous Robards approach.
Both performances were excellent: Marvin was more believable as a coarse, cheating salesman, while Robards was more soft and humane.
As regards the 'Last Supper' model, the Christ character is not Hickey, but Larry Slade.