The Iceman Cometh

A long film adapted from Eugene O'Neill's play. New York, 1912. A group of men live in Harry Hope's saloon. Each of them used to be something: a union man, a policeman, an officer, a journalist. Now they drink and plan to put their lives right tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Once a year a salesman named Hickey arrives and buys everyone drinks. This time he arrives different: he is not drinking, and he tells them all to stop deceiving themselves. He sets out to test everyone's plan for tomorrow. The idea is that what keeps people alive is sometimes the lie itself. Hickey believes he is doing good, and the result saves nobody. The production carries the stage text without abridging it and runs close to four hours; a single setting, long speeches and almost no movement. Lee Marvin plays Hickey, Fredric March the saloon keeper and Robert Ryan plays Larry. It was March's last film; Ryan died shortly after the shoot and his performance is counted the best of his career. John Frankenheimer directed. A heavy but rewarding production for anyone who likes theatre adaptations and performance-driven films. For a viewer who wants cinema, it is deliberately filmed like a stage and it is long.