Synopsis
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) is Bob Rafelson's drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Fresh off Five Easy Pieces, the director cast Jack Nicholson against type — a quiet, withdrawn man buried under someone else's dreams.
David Staebler (Nicholson) broadcasts late-night monologues on Philadelphia radio. His brother Jason (Bruce Dern) summons him to a wintry, half-empty Atlantic City, where Jason fronts for the local mob and keeps chasing a scheme to buy a Pacific island and build a resort paradise on it. David doesn't believe a word of it, yet he stays — drawn into Jason's orbit alongside Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and her young stepdaughter. The longer the con runs, the clearer it becomes that the whole castle is built on air.
This is core New Hollywood: an off-season boardwalk shot by Laszlo Kovacs, two brothers standing in for two halves of a failed American promise. It isn't a film for anyone after pace — it lives in talk, illusion and slow collapse. But Dern and Burstyn tear into it. Stream The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) online on iFILM.
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