Mickey One (1965) ***

 

“Is there any word from the Lord?” - Jeremiah 37:16-17

Warren Beatty, in one of his early films, plays a stand-up comic, living the high life of fast cars and beautiful women. Then it all comes crashing down. He is told that he owes a debt to the Mob, but no one will tell him why, how much he owes, or how long he has to work to pay it off. From this Kafka-esque situation, he flees to Chicago with nothing but the shirt on his back. Given the new name “Mickey One” by an abusive boss, the homeless comic saves his money and starts building himself a new life. Cautiously returning to the stage, Mickey avoids popular clubs where he might be recognized, but he eventually finds himself being judged by unseen, inscrutable forces he cannot escape.

The biggest mistake you can make with “Mickey One,” the mistake I made, is to go into it thinking this is a noir film. Because of the Mob association, the film tends to get promoted as such, but what it really is is a French New Wave art movie, made in America. Director Arthur Penn was heavily influenced by Truffaut ("Jules and Jim") and Godard ("Breathless"), and it seems to me he also watched Orson Welles's 1962 classic “The Trial.” The movie also reminded me of Fellini's "8 1/2," with its grotesque characters and disorienting flashbacks.

Using these art-house elements, Penn has created, not a noir crime movie, but an existentialist exploration of the human condition. Mickey's predicament is our predicament. When he stands on stage, with a blinding spotlight shining down on him, afraid that he may be struck down at any moment for unknown reasons, his cri du coeur is the Bible verse repeatedly quoted by the local Salvation Army volunteers, “Is there any word from the Lord?”

Unfortunately, like the New Wave films that inspired it, “Mickey One” is confounding and difficult to watch. It is such a classic example of Americanized New Wave cinema that I would definitely recommend it for true film buffs, not so much for everyone else. The film deserves its cult classic status, with emphasis on the “cult” rather than the classic.

3 stars out of 5