The Iceman Cometh

Adapting a Broadway play, especially one that's among the most famous, is always a tricky thing. How can you adapt a play, which may or may not only use a couple of sets to carry out a whole story, into something cinematic without hindering the message or content of the source material?

Such is the burden that "The Iceman Cometh" had to wear when it originally released in 1973. Released to mostly overwhelming acclaim, Eugene O'Neill's 1942 play was, and still is, a perfect example of how a director and an A-list cast of stars can take a play that's been produced tirelessly and breathe new life into it.

Director John Frankenheimer already had "The Young Savages," "The Manchurian Candidate," and "The Train" under his belt before he tackled this adaptation. He made it clear early on that he was a unique voice in Hollywood, with his thrilling films that got audiences thinking in ways that filmmakers today even fail to do. In came the American Film Theatre, a short-lived (1973-1975) theater-to-cinemas program spearheaded by Edie and Ely Landau that had some of Broadway's most famous plays being adapted by filmmakers and shown in movie theaters across the nation. Their original plan was as a subscription service in which, like Broadway, the films would run in seasons. Each month would yield a new adaptation, and if you were a subscriber it'd be like sitting in the front row of a live production. Of course, the gambit didn't really pay off in the end, but "The Iceman Cometh" is the perfect example of how the idea could work in the hands of the right filmmaker.

Their budgeting scheme was simple: Produce these adaptations for little money (usually around $750,000) and give some of the greatest working filmmakers complete creative freedom to make the film they want. In the case of "The Iceman Cometh," A-list actors like Jeff Bridges, Robert Ryan, Fredric March and Lee Marvin were hip to the idea of adapting O'Neill's play, even though it was for little money (Marvin was only paid $25,000 despite his usual fee being closer to $250,000 at the time). Frankenheimer was the perfect director to make a film about broken men in a dingy skid-row bar all griping about their past lives. He could light a set in a style not unlike that of theater and had the innate skill of knowing exactly where to put the camera at any given moment. Like the original theater production, this adaptation revels in the motion of every character and how it juxtaposes to the dialogue being spoken.

With a brand-new and gorgeous 2K restoration by Kino Lorber, the new Blu-ray release of "The Iceman Cometh" is nothing short of a triumph. With both the four-hour Director's Cut and the three-hour Theatrical Cut up for reappraisal, this isn't simply something to add to your collection because of the film simply being important or good. It's a must-own because it's just as fascinated with the American Film Theatre's play-to-film subscription scheme as it is with the film itself. Special features include:

� Interview with Edie Landau
� "Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera," a promotional film for the American Film Theatre
� Trailer Gallery

"The Iceman Cometh"
Blu-ray
$34.95
www.kinolorber.com/product/the-iceman-cometh-2-disc-blu-ray