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The Iceman Cometh (1973)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 8
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 561

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Movie Info

John Frankenheimer's screen version of Eugene O'Neill's 1947 Broadway play The Iceman Cometh is set in 1912 at Harry Hope's dingy waterfront saloon. On the occasion of Hope's birthday, several derelicts enter the scene to pontificate on the lives they'd planned, the lives they still dream about, and the wasted lives they wound up with. The cast features Lee Marvin as Hickey, a loser who's convinced himself that he's a winner; Robert Ryan as Larry Slade; and Fredric March (his last film role) as

PG, 3 hr. 59 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Romance, Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: John Frankenheimer , Clarence Fok Yiu-leung

Written By: Thomas Quinn Curtiss, Eugene O'Neill, Johnny Mak, Stephen Siu

In Theaters: Nov 10, 1973 Limited

On DVD: Apr 1, 2003

Cast

Lee Marvin
Hickey
Robert Ryan
Larry Slade
Fredric March
Harry Pope
Jeff Bridges
Don Parritt
Sorrell Booke
Hugo Kalmar
Hildy Brooks
Margie
Bart Burns
Moran
Nancy Juno Dawson
Pearl
Bradford Dillman
Willie Oban
Evans Evans
Cora
Martyn Green
The Capt.
Moses Gunn
Joe Mott
Clifton James
Pat McGloin
John McLiam
Jimmy Tomorrow
Stephen Pearlman
Chuck Morello
Tom Pedi
Rocky Pioggi
George Voskovec
Piet Wetjoen
Don Charles McGovern
Lieb
Biao Yuen
Maggie Cheung
Wah Yuen
Sarah Lee
Elvina Kong

Critic Reviews for The Iceman Cometh

All Critics (8) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (1) | DVD (2)

We see a fairly dazzling array of performances, built by Frankenheimer cunningly and steadily.

May 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Michael Feingold

Village Voice

Top Critic

Eugene O'Neill's great, heavy, simplistic, mechanical, beautiful play has been given a straightforward, faithful production in handsome, dark-toned color.

May 28, 2008 Full Review Source: New Yorker

| Comment

Pauline Kael

New Yorker

Top Critic

The play is an inescapably great experience, and that fact isn't muffled by this film.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Nora Sayre

New York Times

Top Critic

For four hours we live in these two rooms and discover the secrets of these people, and at the end we have gone deeper, seen more, and will remember more, than with most of the other movies of our life.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

A stiff in spite of an interesting cast.

February 5, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

The scene-stealer is Robert Ryan, one of cinema's forgotten great actors. He delivers a superlative performance as the radical with dark reason and fearful purpose, bringing a new, almost heroic dimension to the character.

May 28, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

A series of powerful performances and some sympathetic direction from Frankenheimer raise this above most of the American Film Theater's productions.

August 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Jamie Russell

Film4

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Iceman Cometh

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Really long. People really used to sit through 4 hour plays? And that's not counting the intermissions. Wow. Very interesting from an acting perspective. Some fine performances here.

July 14, 2011

Brandon Brendel

The Iceman Cometh (1973) I'll be honest... I watched this strictly for Lee Marvin even if it's a non-traditional Marvin role and that I'm also a fan of Robert Ryan and Fredric March. I'm sure the novel or original stage play are fantastic but that's exactly the weakness of this movie for me. This essentially is a

September 19, 2008