Synopsis
Set in 1912, inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props everyone up with free drinks and spirited stories of his travels. However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Lee MarvinTheodore 'Hickey' Hickman
- Fredric MarchHarry Hope
- Robert RyanLarry Slade
- Jeff BridgesDon Parritt
- Bradford DillmanWillie Oban
- Sorrell BookeHugo Kalmar
- Hildy BrooksMargie
- Juno DawsonPearl (as Nancy Juno Dawson)
- Evans EvansCora
- Martyn GreenCecil Lewis
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
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. - 100
Portland Oregonian
Lee Marvin does the best acting of his life as Hickey, the usual life of the party who shows up this year sober and intent on ridding his drunken pals of their "pipe dreams." [04 Apr 2003] - 88
Chicago Tribune
One of the best American Film Theatre production is a potent transcription of Eugene O'Neill's great barroom drama, set in 1912, with Lee Marvin as doomed gladhander Hickey--a role made famous on stage by Jason Robards--and a matchless supporting cast. [31 Oct 2003, p.C5] - 80
The Guardian
One of the best movies in the American Film Theatre Collection. [22 Aug 2004, p.12] - 70
The New York Times
The play is an inescapably great experience, and that fact isn't muffled by this film. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Though Lee Marvin doesn't quite work as the salesman Hickey, the film features amazing performances from Robert Ryan and, in his last film role, Fredric March. [20 Mar 1994, p.5] - 70
The New Yorker
Eugene O'Neill's great, heavy, simplistic, mechanical, beautiful play has been given a straightforward, faithful production in handsome, dark-toned color. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
Though some consider this one of Eugene O'Neill's finest plays, The Iceman Cometh does not translate well to the screen. No matter what Frankenheimer pulled from his bag of directorial tricks, the work remains stagey and talky on celluloid; even the majestic talent of March cannot turn it around.
