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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Visually stunning Kafkaesque thriller, 23 January 2001
9/10
Author: EThompsonUMD from Massachusetts

Thanks to AMC's Film Preservation series those of us who had missed the rare previous opportunities to view this out-of-print cult classic on television were recently afforded a cinematic pleasure of the highest order.

Everything about this film impressed me enormously - its startling New Wave-influenced editing and camera angles, its atmospheric noir lighting effects, its surrealistic mise en scene, its Kafkaesque paranoia and philosophical themes, and the incredibly convincing performance given by Warren Beatty in the title role. There isn't a dull shot or moment in the entire film, and some of its images and visual conceits (the automobile junk yard as existential metaphor, for instance) are breathtaking. That this artistically ambitious and ambiguous film ever got made and theatrically released in 1965 is a small miracle. Perhaps I'll think differently after the initial glow has worn off and I have a chance for a second viewing, but right now I'd rank Arthur Penn's Mickey One with such all time great thrillers as The Third Man and Touch of Evil.

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14 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
One of the great lost 1960s movies! A dazzling mindbender, 13 February 2003
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Director Arthur Penn and Star Warren Beatty were the team behind 'Bonnie And Clyde', a movie which literally exploded on to Hollywood screens in 1967, and caused some serious repercussions still being felt today. There's no argument from me that 'Bonnie And Clyde' is a milestone, and definitely a modern classic. But I have heard hardly anyone mention Penn and Beatty's previous collaboration 'Mickey One' released two years earlier. In its own way this movie is just as stunning, yet it is almost forgotten and unseen. I had been curious about the movie for some time and was ecstatic when I stumbled across an old VHS copy in my local video store (apparently it was never released on video in the US, this is certainly not the case here in Australia). I must say this was one of the most original and surprising movies I've ever seen. It reminded me in some ways of Boorman's 'Point Blank' and Seijun Suzuki's 'Tokyo Drifter' and 'Branded To Kill' ( all of which it predates by the way) in the way that it uses a genre crime film as an excuse for some mind-blowing visuals and ideas. 'Mickey One' shares a similar stylized surrealism and hip approach to the aforementioned, though they are all quite different films in other ways. Warren Beatty is an actor I have long lost interest in, but the movie reminds you of just how good he was in his heyday. The rest of the cast is eclectic and interesting and includes Canadian beauty Alexandra Stewart, veteran character actor Jeff Corey and an unforgettable appearance by Kamatari Fujiwara as an enigmatic performance artist in one of the movies most striking sequences. Beatty plays "The Comic" a wise-cracking comedian in the Lenny Bruce/Mort Sahl mold who finds himself on the run from the mob. He drifts along keeping an extremely low profile and doing odd jobs, before the lure of the stage proves to be too strong to ignore. He starts performing again under the name Mickey One, but as his reputation increases he becomes extremely paranoid wondering where/if/when his past will catch up to him with (presumably) fatal consequences. I see others who have seen this film have mentioned Kafka, others Fellini, and many have commented on the jazz influence (Sax legend Stan Getz is a featured soloist on the soundtrack). I can see what everyone is getting at, but those comparisons and the others I have made, really give you little idea of just how special and unique this movie is. If you get the opportunity to watch it please do so, as I believe you will be impressed. There are many contenders for "the great lost 1960s movie" and 'Mickey One' is as good as any. A truly remarkable movie that deserves to be rediscovered.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
One Too Many, 28 June 2005
7/10
Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY

(Spoilers) Strange motion picture out of the 1960's about a comic on the run from the mob who in the end gives up running and finally faces what fate, or the syndicate, has in store for him.

Polish/American stand-up comic Mickey One(Warren Beatty),a name that he took later in the film while on the lamb, feels he's lived beyond his means and now has to pay up to keep himself from being done in by the Detroit mobsters who he's deeply in debt to.

We see at the beginning of the movie a montage of Micky One's lifestyle with money, that the mob advanced him, going up in smoke with his gambling drinking and women women women with no end in sight. Now Mickey realizes that he's got to pay up to keep from getting his arms and legs broken and goes to see his manager Rudy Lopp, Franchot Tone, to see what he owes.

Micky finds out that he's squandered well over $20,000.00 of the mobs money and has no way of paying it back. Terrified and fearing that he's on the mobsters hit-list Mickey makes a run for it out of Detroit and during the next four years drifts all throughout the USA finally ending up in Chicago.

Working all kinds off odd jobs one in which he disposed the garbage at a local flop-house Mickey slowly goes back to what he does best stand-up comedy. By doing that Mickey's exposing himself to the mobsters who have been out looking for him in all the major nightclubs from Detroit to Denver trying to find and even murder him.

Like a man on a tightrope Mickey has to be good on the stage in order to support himself as a stand-up comic but at the same time not that good in order not to draw attention on himself and thus have himself beaten or rubbed out for his compulsive gambling and womanizing. That lead to him sticking the Detroit Mobsters with a +$20,000.00 tab.

Trusting no one Mickey lives in this run down apartment building in the Chicago slums and one day a young women Jenny, Alexandra Stewart, mistakenly end up in his apartment thinking that it was vacant by paying the landlady the rent. Reluctantly letting Jenny stay with him turns out to be at first the worst and later on the best thing that happened to Mickey One in the movie.

Stark and brooding "Mickey One" is one of the best example of surrealistic American cinema to come out of the 1960's or 70's. Watching the film you get the impression that your seeing a Salvador Dali painting come to life.

A lot of the scenes in the film don't seem to make any sense even for a movie as surrealistic like "Mickey One". But they somehow or another make the film move towards it's somewhat freaked-out conclusion without interfering with the movies basic plot: a man on the run for his life.

The ending of the movie, with Mickey driven to the point of not caring if he lived or died anymore, is really something to watch. Beaten and battered, from a bar fight that spilled into the street the night before, Mickey goes on the stage of a swanky Chicago nightclub, the Xanadu, to do what may very well be his last performance in show business and possibly his life.

Besides the aforementioned cast the movie also has veteran actors Hurd Hatfield and Jeff Corey as the Xanadu's owner and manager Castle & Fryer as well as Teddy Heart as Mickey's sad and tragic booking agent Georgie Berson.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Kafka meets Algren, 28 April 2007
9/10
Author: screaminmimi from United States

This is a movie where the landscape is a major character. Arthur Penn made the most of his Chicago locale. Much of what he used is no longer standing, but it is deeply ingrained in true Chicago-influenced art: not just the works of Nelson Algren, but Richard Wright, Theodore Dreiser and James T. Farrell, blues artists from Maxwell Street, Ivan Allbright's grotesque paintings, the non-fiction of Studs Terkel and Upton Sinclair, Gwendolyn Brooks' poems all drew a kind of grimy vitality from this landscape, as well.

There are bits and pieces of that Chicago still standing. I know them when I see them, because--even in person--they leave me with the impression of being in black and white monochrome rather than color. If you get to see this black and white part of Chicago or some other big city (older parts of Tokyo are like this too), you will see how a place can exert such a powerful influence on the people in it. If you accept that premise in this movie, the actions of the characters become more understandable. What may at first glance seem absurd becomes reasonable (if not rational), given the influence of the environment.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A well-made drama, 31 May 2000
7/10
Author: xtonybueno (xtonybueno@aol.com) from USA

I saw this movie for the first time in a film appreciation class and at first I was put off by its style and opaque content. But I felt compelled to seek out and purchase the laserdisc, and subsequently I enjoy it very much. Basically, Warren Beatty is a nightclub comic on the run from the mob. Along the way there is much symbolism, events which may or may not be hallucinations, and spoken words with double meanings which may or may not be significant. What makes this movie successful is that very little is 100% clear, and I am actually in the minority who believe that Mickey One's paranoia is indeed justified. An underground film which deserves its cult status, see it if you get the chance.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
An existential paranoid thriller, 25 July 1999
10/10
Author: Alonso Duralde from W. Hollywood, CA

I'd heard for years that this was a cult film, but I wasn't prepared for how haunting, disturbing, riveting and utterly brilliant this Arthur Penn concoction would be. Warren Beatty stars as a stand-up comic on the run from the mob; years later, when he may once again rise to fame, he must decide if he has been in hiding because of a genuine threat, or his own paranoia.

The high-contrast b&w cinematography is gorgeous, the score (featuring improvisations by Stan Getz) jarringly matches the new wave-style editing, and Penn keeps the audience on its toes with jump cuts, odd character touches and a general permeating sense of unease and distrust.

Seek this one out if you get the chance to see it on the big screen. And Columbia/Tri-Star, please, release this gem on video!

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Paranoia on the run in mid-60's!, 10 July 2004
9/10
Author: shepardjessica from sparks, nevada

This under-appreciated early film of Arthur Penn has been called a rip-off of European films, but it's much better than that. Penn and Beatty obviously formed a love/hate relationship before they made Bonnie and Clyde two years later, and this film is great! The perfect role for Beatty and a host of strange characters (who is that little guy?) and an offbeat performance by Francot Tone and a creepy one by Hurd Hatfield.

This film's reputation will rise in value over the years since Mickey is no longer alone on the American streets. Wonderful b/w cinematography and true American sensibility permeates every scene. Try to find this gem and you may be in for a surprise. A 9 out of 10! Best performance in film Beatty.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Refreshing! One of the most unique American films ever made, 24 January 2001
9/10
Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN

I have not watched many American films in the past few months. Even the good ones tend to be repetitive, not just in plot, but in style and technical aspects. An "art film" in this country seems simply to be a Hollywood script produced for less money. This goes for every era of American film.

So it is rare to find an American film with true aspirations towards originality. And now I see Mickey One. I heard about it quite a while ago, not long after I saw the second pairing of director Arthur Penn and actor Warren Beatty, the absolute masterpiece Bonnie and Clyde. That was some four years ago. Mickey One is not available on video, so I never really thought I would see it, nor did I really care; I was interested, but had not heard many good things about it (it's usually categorized as "pretentious" or an "interesting failure"). But then, about a month ago, I caught a snatch of it on AMC. Then, tonight, I come home from work, turn on the television, switch to AMC, and it is just about to begin. It was only 95 minutes long, so I sat down to watch it.

What I experienced was possibly the most unique American film I'd ever seen. I would cite a few possible influences of this film to describe it: it reminded me of Fellini, mainly 8 1/2, + Kafka + a very unique and difficult to identify style of humor, very sly. Many people who do see this film will probably dismiss it because of its confusing story, and admittedly, once the story makes sense, it doesn't equal up to all that much. I didn't mind that so much. Maybe the sum is not as great as its parts, but, boy, are those parts amazing! For one thing, the cinematography is amazing. The final scene, where Mickey One (Warren Beatty) confronts his fears in the form of an unrelenting, unblinking spotlight. The dialogue is also amazing, too, as well as the screenplay (at least for individual scenes). Take, for instance, the way Mickey's love interest is introduced: to escape a possible spy, he jumps out of his bathroom window onto a trampoline. He comes back to his apartment later to find a young woman sitting in his chair. "Who the heck are you?" "Your landlady said you were evicted. I gave her all my money, and it's dark outside. I can't go now!" I haven't seen that before. It's damned clever. Also, I've never in my life, in American film or elsewhere, seen such a clever use of speeding up the film. Sure, plenty of filmmakers use slow-motion as a filmic tool, but fast-motion, I've just never seen that before (possibly in silent film, but it is not the same).

The best part of the film happens to be almost completely separated from the rest of the film. A Japanese fellow who has appeared from time to time in the picture, who always sees Mickey and waves at him, reveals his magnum opus of modern art made from parts found it the junkyard. He calls it "Yes," and it is this profoundly weird and comical machine that smashes together trash can lids and pounds on piano keys. There are fireworks attached to it, which eventually make Yes burst into flames, which leads the fire department to put it out in a glorious blanket of what seems to be bubbles from bubble bath or dish soap. It's quite surreal, and quite amazing.

Seriously, if you are a fan of unique cinema, see Mickey One. 9/10. And Warren Beatty's great, too, as ought to be expected.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Like seeing Lenny Bruce lost in a house of mirrors, 16 January 2001
Author: mosoul from San Francisco

This gritty surreal stumble through 1965 America is uncompromisingly downbeat. Like a last visit to the now absent locales featured in Diane Arbus photographs, it repels and attracts almost like a roadside museum of oddities. Apparently Lenny Bruce and Diane Arbus shared a passion for New York's infamous Hubert's Flea Circus and a Times Square movie theater that ran Todd Browning's "Freaks". This film captures that strange lost in the fun house feel also seen in Orson Welles' "Lady from Shanghai" climax . To add contrast Director Arthur Penn also interjects dreamy Playboy magazine moments between Warren Beatty and 1966 Playmate of the Year Donna Loren at a posh hotel. Stan Getz silky saxophone on the sound track provides Mickey One's one discernible connective thread. It dramatizes the observation that, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you". Visually the film was so modern that audiences took at least 20-years to catch up to it.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The fact someone had the guts to make such an uncompromising and bizarre film with little to no commercial prospects in the mid-60s is amazing, 3 December 2006
8/10
Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

"Mickey One" is a Hollywood film produced by a major studio starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn (before either went on to "Bonnie and Clyde"). Its also one of the most surreal films I've seen, rivaling anything by either David Lynch. Who would've thought? The fact someone had the guts to make such an uncompromising and bizarre film with little to no commercial prospects in the mid-60s is amazing. These kind of existentialist head pictures would've been in vogue for at least another five or ten years in Hollywood. This all makes "Mickey One" incredibly ahead of its time. Its also a fascinating and unique American picture. Its a shame this hasn't been put out yet onto DVD and its one of the most unfortunately overlooked films from a decade that produced many.

This is one of those films that seems to work on its own inner logic. The plot is slightly confusing (set up by an absolutely brilliant montage at the beginning) but the skill put into the project make it all worthwhile. Warren Beatty hasn't made any really good films in a while, but back in his heyday he was one of the best actors working. This is as good as his performance in either "Bonnie & Clyde" or "The Parallax View". The fact that the film is so experimental and yet manages to make his (and Alexandra Stewart's) characters sympathetic amidst the madness and supporting caricatures is no small feat. The interesting thing to wonder at the end is if Mickey's paranoia is justified or not. While the hyper-kinetic style can grow thin occasionally, this is still a daringly original film. I feel this will improve with each viewing. (8/10)

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