Lady Ice (1973) User Reviews (14)

The real story about this film

[PAL · 4/10 · 25 May 2007]

Dr. Bombay is wrong about this film being made for TV.

It was always intended to be a feature, produced by the General Electric subsidiary, Tomorrow Entertainment. It suffered along the way from problems with the script and was delayed several times.

Alan Trustman, a lawyer and the author of the film, remained mostly in Boston during development, which hindered the process of fixing the script.

While Tomorrow Entertainment did indeed produce many fine TV movies, Lady Ice was one of two features developed by the company. The other was Gravy Train, a bit of cult classic. After the limited success of these films the company concentrated on TV movies.

Strictly for Jennifer O'Neill fans

[dave13-1 · 5/10 · 12 July 2020]

Jennifer O'Neill became a star as the distant object of Gary Grimes' voyeuristic attention in the wonderfully nostalgic Summer of '42. That film showed that she could be captivating when viewed from afar, but her career went off the rails while she was still in her twenties owing to a shortage of technical chops. Simply put, she had the looks of a movie star but not the presence. Here we see Jennifer driving around Miami in a 1970 Maserati Ghibli, taking a late night swim, sunning herself in a bikini, flying off to the Bahamas... Mansions, speedboats, planes and jewels provide the rest of Lady Ice's eye candy. It's all very appealing to look at, but herein lies the problem. The movie is all surface gloss with nothing underneath to drive the wheels. Someone forgot to tell the producers that heist movies are crime thrillers, and crime thrillers are plot driven. They need tight pacing, high stakes, plot twists, none of which appear in this film. The only action is provided by a little routine fast driving. Otherwise, everything meanders along in predictable fashion. Some greedy people are interested in some jewels. No surprises here. The producers could have recut Lady Ice as a four minute music video or an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and lost nothing.

tries to be slick

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 30 June 2019]

Andy Hammon (Donald Sutherland) steals a diamond necklace from a criminal type. He's a newly hired mechanic working for Paul Booth. He gets fired after flirting with the bosses' daughter Paula Booth (Jennifer O'Neill). They get into a car chase and he offers her the $3M necklace. It turns out that the Booths are fences working with Peter Brinker (Eric Braeden). Police detective Ford Pierce (Robert Duvall) is frustrated with Andy Hammon who is actually working with the insurance companies looking to collect his 10%.

It's a lot of Florida. It's a lot of sunshine and water. It's trying to be a stylish thriller. It seems to be spending a chunk of change. Sutherland seems to be playing around with the material. It has the potential but it ends up as a muddle. There are questionable choices all the way through the movie. I don't know why they are measuring the jewels in a moving RV other than injecting some unnecessary action. I don't know why the plot goes from Florida to Chicago. I'm never certain what is happening at any one time. I look up director Tom Gries and am not surprised that he is mostly a TV director. He's trying to give the visual style but doesn't have the skills to pull it off. That's the movie in a nutshell. It's trying to be a flashy big budget thriller but it doesn't have it.

Little style, less substance.

[Doctor_Bombay · 13 April 1999]

A made-for-TV `Thomas Crown Affair (1968)' tries hard to duplicate the Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway chemistry, using Donald Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill in this watery version.

Role reversal sets O'Neill as the wealthy jewel thief, hunted seductively by insurance investigator Sutherland..who works most of the film in shirts open to the navel…Ahh, the 70's!!!

O'Neill is beautiful and stylish, drives fast cars, swims unclothed and stays away from complex sentences, while Sutherland smokes those little thin cigars and from time to time falls back on his ‘Hawkeye' grin. There is a nice turn by Jon Cypher as the heavy. Soap opera vet Eric Braeden gets some on-screen time as does, of all people Robert Duvall as the straight-arrow cop.

Fun for a lark. Connoisseurs of the genre only please .

Dull

[junk-monkey · 3/10 · 5 June 2007]

This movie was indeed made for a cinematic release. The version being shown on British TV at the moment has some awful truly awful pan and scan moments where nothing is actually on screen, the action (such as it is) happily continuing on the cropped off portions of the original footage. The end titles are shown in full wide-screen.

It's a slight, little movie. A thin plot and not many twists or action but it did have one redeeming moment for me. Pretty early on in the movie, there is a low key car chase where one of the cars runs into a barrier. The set up is pretty run of the mill. Car one drives across a bascule bridge (one of those that opens upwards in the middle), car two follows just as the bridge is starting to open and the barriers come down across the road. So far so ho-hum routine car chase. What happens next is that the barrier smacks into car 2's windscreen and nothing explodes. Nothing flies off dramatically into the air. There's nothing faked, rigged, or breakaway about any of it. It looks like a real car crashing into a real barrier. I found it strangely refreshing.

The big trouble with this movie is, well, it's just dull. It felt a lot longer than its 93 minutes.

Lady Ice

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 10 August 2023]

Though there were times when I enjoyed Donald Sutherland's cheeky, rebellious, style of characterisation, for the most part I never really understood why he was such a success. Versatile he isn't, and here though easily stealing the limelight, he does very little with a weak plot, a thinly spread story and a co-star who smiles a lot! He is insurance investigator "Andy" who robs a gangster of a necklace which he then uses to try to lure "Paula" (Jennifer O'Neill) into disclosing her secrets as a highly effective jewel fencer. Of course, she isn't that dumb - even if she is the crook in question, and so for the next ninety minutes we plays a sort of cat and mouse game between the two that errs all too often on the side of predictable romance. It's all rather flat and by-the-numbers with an underwhelming Robert Duvall and an out of sorts Patrick Magee both failing to add much lustre to this not very shiny drama. It's got made for television written all over it, and I was frankly rather bored by it all. Maybe fans of Sutherland might enjoy it to complete a list, but it has little else to recommend it, sorry.

Dull THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR-style Movie With No Style

[boblipton · 4/10 · 6 January 2021]

Jennifer O'Neill is a top-end jewelry fence in Florida. When a pricey set of hot rocks goes through her hands, insurance investigator Donald Sutherland is on the case. Sparks fly between the two.

The production of this film was clearly inspired by THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. This movie, however, lacks all the heat and style of that earlier movie. There's little chemistry between the two performers, the music is 1970s chick-a-boom, the camerawork by Lucien Ballard is workmanlike but unimaginative, and director Tom Gries largely wastes a good cast that includes Robert Duvall Patrick Magee and Dana Elcar. All the performances are minimalistic, with insurance executives empty suits saying banal lines as if they are of great import. Sutherland has a few flares of humor, Miss O'Neill is exceedingly lovely, but it's an uninspiring movie.

a real loser

[sandcrab277 · 5/10 · 30 April 2019]

Never quite gets off the ground ... sutherland plays his usual wisecracking self and jennifer o'neill pretty much matches wits with him while jon cypher plays the heavy ... robert duvall didn't quite match up to the role of a real fbi investigator ... jewel thieves always have the problem of where to sell the stolen goods and usually the insurance company is the best bet for a good payoff... its too obvious

Far duller than it should have been.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 3 May 2023]

Among the most interesting and bankable genres of films are heist pictures. Movies like "Rifiki", "Oceans 11", "Grand Slam", "Larceny Inc.", and "Bob le Flambeur" are just a few of the classic heist movies that come to mind....but there are many, many more. So, in light of this, you would expect "Lady Ice" to be much, much better than it was. Instead of thrills, it provided boredom. Some of the problem is the acting. While the lead, Donald Sutherland, has a certain charm to him, his leading lady, Jennifer O'Neill, is quite pretty....but not much more. A lot of this is because her acting range in the film is extremely limited and perhaps the script and direction were part of this problem. Plus, she was originally a model who later became an actress.

Who knows? All I know is that I wanted to like it more than I did...and with an overall paltry score on IMDB of 4.7, it's obvious others didn't particularly enjoy the film as well.

In this film, Andy (Sutherland) is posing as a carefree criminal. He begins the film with an actual robbery (of a mobster) and uses the stolen necklace to impress Paula (O'Neill)....and hopefully get her to trust him. Why? Because apparently this woman is the head of a fencing ring...hard as it is to believe.

I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately, some low energy performances and a lackluster script made it a difficult task to finish the movie.

Fun Movie!

[lcfox-34322 · 7/10 · 17 November 2020]

Is this a great movie? Well, no, it's not. But what's really amazing here is that we are able to see it at all. Thanks, Prime! As a kid in the 70s and 80s, and continuing on as a young adult into the 90s, I was pretty sure I had watched just about every action/adventure/cops&robbers flick that came out between 1960 and 1995. At least the ones that had any kind of a star. I had never even heard of this one until I saw it available included with Prime. It's the kind of movie I would have loved as a kid. At this point, I'm sophisticated enough in my judgement of a film to realize that this one is a mess. And while many of the plot points don't seem to make a lot of sense, the film moves along steadily towards what you imagine will be some kind of an interesting conclusion. The ending, along with many other parts of the film is a bit strange, but somehow satisfying. Not much of this movie goes as expected. It's uneven, but it does keep you more interested that a standard formulaic offering. I really enjoyed the performances of the three main stars. Donald Sutherland is sure fun to watch, even if the character did something no real person would ever do about every ten minutes. Jennifer O'Neill has a great energy in every movie I've seen her in. Robert Duvall! He was super solid in a movie where everything else was kind of all over the place. To really enjoy a movie like this, a big part of it has to come from just wanting to see what was going on in the business in 1973. What did the world look like? How was everyone dressing? What were they driving? What were these actors doing in between making really good movies? If you've got an inquiring mind, and really want to know, check this movie out. If not, try something from the 90s.

Lady Ice

[henry8-3 · 3/10 · 20 June 2021]

Slick undercover insurance investigator Donald Sutherland goes after a ring of jewel thieves / fences including Jennifer O'Neill who he starts to fall for.

Considering the talent here, this is a dreadful mess, partly because of a leaden script with an uninvolving plot but mainly because all the characters are so dull and unconvincing, particularly O'Neill as the apparently ace jewel fence. The romantic scenes never really happen and the occasional action scenes are tired. You can't help feeling the cast aren't convinced or happy either and all in all this is a bitter disappointment.

Don't forget to cringe at the closing scene on the beach.

Jennifer O'Neill

[garyldibert · 8/10 · 30 January 2014]

TITLE: LADY ICE open in theaters on July 13 1973 and the running time was 94 minutes. LADY ICE is a 1973 crime film about an insurance investigator who becomes involved with a wealthy young woman he suspects of fencing stolen jewelry. The film was directed by Tom Gries,

STARRING: Donald Sutherland as Andy Hammon, Jennifer O'Neill as Paula Booth, Robert Duvall as Ford Pierce, Patrick Magee as Paul Booth , and Jon Cypher as Eddie Stell

SUMMARY: The movie opens with this huge man arriving by plane at the airport in Miami. Andy Hammon greets the man in his hotel room. Hammon takes what the man is carrying and handcuffs the man to the toilet. Hamman works as a mechanic for Paul Booth. The next day Paula Booth brings her car into have it service when Andy makes a play for her. Paula goes up and tells daddy and then daddy has Andy come to his office. Daddy fires Andy to make his daughter happy. Later Andy follows Paula and makes her an offer that she can't refuse. Andy shows Paula the necklace and Paula tells daddy and her associate about the necklace. Therefore, Paula and her associate come up with a swindle to take the necklace.

QUESTIONS: Where did the necklace come from in the first place? What Happen to the man in the hotel? Did Paula and her associate ever get the necklace?

MY THOUGHTS: Again, this was one of those movies that was hard to stay interested in. You rather know what's going happen before it really happens. I thought Don Sutherland was good in his role as Andy Hammon. I as thought that Robert Duvall was good in his role as Ford Pierce. However the reason I bought this movie because of Jennifer O'Neil and I wasn't disappointed it. She was young in this movie but she played her role very well as Paula Booth. Her talent and beauty was displayed very well. Despite the lack of action, because off Jennifer O'Neill I give this movie 8 weasel stars.

Half carat convoluted crime caper

[Chase_Witherspoon · 6/10 · 23 February 2024]

Sultry O'Neill fresh from her career defining role in 'Summer of '42' plays the spoiled, enigmatic but emotionally aloof daughter of a wealthy British magnate (Magee, whose character disappears midway through the picture) being covertly pursued by tenacious insurance investigator Sutherland until she eventually succumbs to his easygoing charm.

Attractive cast, an array of classic fast cars (and some spectacular car chases) and location photography (Miami, Nassau) elevates a convoluted plot that requires close attention to follow. Duvall is solid as the special agent reluctantly co-operating with rogue Sutherland (who's only after his 10%), Cypher is O'Neill's overbearing fiancé and co-conspirator, whilst Braeden shows up late in the picture in what turns out to be a minor role as an international jewel launderer (he also momentarily looks at the camera in the scene where he's seen walking away from Sutherland following the pool encounter). Sharp eyes will also spot Dana Elcar in an uncredited appearance as one of Sutherland's employers just before sunset.

Despite likeable performances from the beguiling O'Neill, charismatic Sutherland and a fine score by composer Botkin, director Gries' high concept crime caper doesn't always seem to know its destination nor are the motivations of the characters always clear. O'Neill's character displays a highly uneven temperament which seems to be deliberate, but it does make her behaviour in certain situations difficult to fathom (I'm not sure what was happening in the scuba diving scene for instance). There's a scene in with she explains herself as being 'fragments' of different personalities which is perhaps reaching for some psychological explanation, but it's awfully vague. Anyway, despite being unusually complex to read, she's still a specimen to behold.

Jazzy and energetic, it's got all the elements to be a success, but sadly lacks coherency, and is tonally too erratic to fulfil its significant potential.

Indifferent

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 10 June 2021]

An indifferent kind of crime thriller of the early 1970s, a bit like James Bond but with a more sombre and realistic style. Donald Sutherland stars but this is a far cry from the quality of his best films of the 1970s, which are among my favourites to this day. The plot is about the hunt for diamonds and focuses largely on romance and repartee between Sutherland and Jennifer O'Neill, which didn't really interest me all that much. Nice to see Robert Duvall and Patrick Magee in support.