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The Iceman Cometh

1973 · 239 min

A long, heavy chamber piece that immerses you in boozy despair and shattered illusions, demanding patience for its emotional payoff.

Directed by
John Frankenheimer
Genres
Drama
Starring
Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan
Tagline
They drank and they dreamed...tomorrow they would conquer the world...then along came Hickey.
Overview
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.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
Directed by
John Frankenheimer
Genres
Drama
Starring
Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • bleakstrength 3 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • grief
  • guilt
  • morality
  • isolation
  • obsession
Places
  • small town
  • home
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • single location
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror1
Humour3
Realism8
Romance2
Tension5
Darkness9
Complexity9
Emotional weight9

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
John Frankenheimer
Written by
Thomas Quinn Curtiss
Starring
Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges, Bradford Dillman, Sorrell Booke, Hildy Brooks, Juno Dawson
Cinematography
Ralph Woolsey
Runtime
239 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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