Mickey One

Released Sep 27, 1965

1h 33m

Crime

Drama

List

71%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

52%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Stand-up comic Mickey One (Warren Beatty) is fearful that the gambling debts he amassed have made him a marked man in the Detroit clubs that he frequents. Assuming a false identity, Mickey flees to Chicago, where he cautiously resumes his career at the upscale Club Xanadu. When club owner Ed Castle (Hurd Hatfield) offers Mickey a shot at auditioning for an unknown man with reputed connections in the Midwest, the increasingly paranoid Mickey fears that the mob has finally closed in on him.

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Audience Member

I was not ready for this movie. After angering the mob, a stand-up comic (Warren Beatty) runs away to Chicago, taking the name Mickey One, works in a diner and hides in a flop house. But the lure of the stage is too strong. As he becomes more successful, he worries that each move upward is one closer to his death, as he has no idea who owns him, what he did wrong or how to make it right, so he stays in the spotlight. Mickey says at one point, "I'm the king of silent movies hiding out till the talkies blow over," but he's also standing firmly within the genre of French New Wave in the middle of America. It's like jazz on film, a movie about a comedian who never seems to be funny, a man standing against the blazing and blinding spotlight unsure if he's in the crosshairs. Penn and Beatty fought throughout the making of this movie, with the actor saying, "We had a lot of trouble on that film, because I didn't know what the hell Arthur was trying to do and I tried to find out. I'm not sure that he knew himself." Somehow they got along enough to make the movie that would be a breakthrough for both, Bonnie and Clyde.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Ed M

This is a forgotten movie. And when you watch it you can see why.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/28/20

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is flawed but it's such a great idea, with a great soundtrack and a fun lead that you can't help but fall for it anyhow. At least I couldn't- I super enjoyed this movie, it really was a Kafkaesque trip through a brilliant jazz soundtrack and some really unforgettable cinematography. What a great little film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An existential nightmare about a man coming to terms with the imminence of his eventual death. An overlooked and undervalued classic. One of the greatest American films ever made.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Surrealistic psychedelia trying to catch the (New) Wave--Mickey One...Audience Zero!!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Artsy-Fartsy Nouvelle Vague Wannabe. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

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Arthur Penn

Director

Warren Beatty

The Comic

Hurd Hatfield

Castle

Alexandra Stewart

Jenny

Alan M. Surgal

Writer

John G. Avildsen

Executive Producer

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Joshua Rothkopf

Time Out

Rated: 3/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Nick Pinkerton

Village Voice

West Chicago has never been more lunar and rapturously stark than as filmed by Ghislain Cloquet for Penn's Mickey One.

Nov 12, 2008

Full Review

Richard Whitehall

Los Angeles Free Press

Is it Penn's best movie? I'm tempted to think so.

Feb 3, 2020

Full Review

Dwight MacDonald

Esquire Magazine

Mr. Penn seems to think that by keeping it ambiguous, he can roam more freely on both planes, reality and fantasy. But the confusion -- are we inside or outside of Mickey's head? -- is merely confusing.

Aug 13, 2019

Full Review

Ray Pride

Newcity

Cold and strange and alien, yet its absurdism, which fits no era except whatever moment you're watching it in, is a compelling phantasm Chicago that presumes you're guilty until presuming you're ready to die.

Rated: 10/10

May 21, 2019

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Flawed (it's A bit artsy and pretentious), but full of interesting ideas and characters, this collaboration between star Warren Beatty and director Arthur Penn precedes by two years Bonnie and Clyde, their masterpiece.

Rated: B-

Feb 26, 2012

Full Review

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Synopsis

Stand-up comic Mickey One (Warren Beatty) is fearful that the gambling debts he amassed have made him a marked man in the Detroit clubs that he frequents. Assuming a false identity, Mickey flees to Chicago, where he cautiously resumes his career at the upscale Club Xanadu. When club owner Ed Castle (Hurd Hatfield) offers Mickey a shot at auditioning for an unknown man with reputed connections in the Midwest, the increasingly paranoid Mickey fears that the mob has finally closed in on him.

Director: Arthur Penn
Producer: John G. Avildsen
Screenwriter: Alan M. Surgal
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Florin, Tatira
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 27, 1965, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 18, 2014
Runtime: 1h 33m
Sound Mix: Mono

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