Mickey One *** (1965, Warren Beatty, Alexandra Stewart, Hurd Hatfield, Franchot Tone) – Classic Movie Review 6227

Warren Beatty stars as a club stand-up comic, who flees Detroit for Chicago to escape his involvement with the Mob, changing his identity to Mickey One after stealing the social security card of a homeless tramp. But he is lured back to the stage, though paranoid that the mob he has enraged has found him.

Director Arthur Penn’s freewheeling surrealistic 1965 film is an always intriguing, intelligent drama, written by Alan M Surgal. It remains attractive, even if Beatty never quite gets to grips with his unlikeable and violent character, and the film seems to set out to be deliberately obscure.

It is an always interesting movie – and just possibly a future cult movie, though that hasn’t happened so far – from Penn, the highly respected director of Beatty’s triumphant Bonnie and Clyde. Making an art movie for a major Hollywood studio – Columbia – Penn takes bold risks with a lack of narrative and explanation, and indulging in weird soundtrack and visuals.

Also in the cast are Hurd Hatfield, Alexandra Stewart, Franchot Tone, Teddy Hart, Jeff Corey, Ralph Foody, Dick Lucas, Jack Goodman, Jen Jensen and Dick Baker.

It is shot by Ghislain Cloquet in arty, noir-style black and white, produced by John G Avildsen, Arthur Penn and Harrison Starr, scored by Eddie Sauter and Stan Getz, and set designed by George Jenkins.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6227

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