{ "id": "epkn210pmy", "slug": "mickey-one", "title": "Mickey One", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Mickey One (1965) is Arthur Penn's black-and-white French New Wave-influenced drama starring Warren Beatty as a Detroit comic fleeing the mob to Chicago; a 1965 box-office flop, first Penn-Beatty film before Bonnie and Clyde.", "snippet": "Mickey One (1965) is Arthur Penn's black-and-white French New Wave-influenced drama starring Warren Beatty as a Detroit comic fleeing the mob to Chicago; a 1965 box-office flop, first Penn-Beatty film before Bonnie and Clyde.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "markdown": "# Mickey One\n\n**Mickey One** is a 1965 American black-and-white drama directed and produced by [Arthur Penn](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-penn), written by Alan M. Surgal, and starring [Warren Beatty](https://www.edgepedia.org/warren-beatty) as a nightclub comedian who flees Detroit for Chicago under an assumed identity, pursued by a criminal syndicate whose reasons for hunting him are never explained.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) • [2](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone) It was the first collaboration between Penn and Beatty, two years before their landmark *[Bonnie and Clyde](https://www.edgepedia.org/bonnie-and-clyde-film)* (1967).[2](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | Screened at the New York Film Festival on September 8, 1965; released September 27, 1965; Chicago opening October 27, 1965[3](https://emanuellevy.com/review/mickey-one-1965/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) |\n| Format | 93 minutes, black and white, Westrex sound, United States[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) |\n| Key credits | Director and producer Arthur Penn; screenplay Alan M. Surgal; cinematography Ghislain Cloquet; music Eddie Sauter with Stan Getz improvisations; editors Aram Avakian and Marc Laub[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) |\n| Principal cast | Warren Beatty (Mickey One), Alexandra Stewart (Jenny), Hurd Hatfield (Castle), Franchot Tone (Ruby Lapp), Teddy Hart (Berson), Jeff Corey (Fryer)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) |\n| Production | Florin-Tatira Productions, distributed by Columbia Pictures; filmed on location in Chicago[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) |\n| Commercial result | A box-office failure in 1965[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/24135/the-big-idea-bonnie-and-clyde) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nA nightclub comedian in Detroit lives extravagantly and accumulates large gambling debts. Certain that the underworld syndicate controlling his debts and the clubs where he works is going to punish him, he flees to the west side of Chicago and obtains a restaurant job hauling garbage using a social security card bearing the name Miklos Wunejeva.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE) Sony Pictures' synopsis states that he incurs the wrath of the Mob without knowing why.[2](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone)\n\nWanting to resume his career, Mickey contacts an agent, Berson, who books him at the posh Club Xanadu, owned by Ed Castle. Meanwhile his landlady tries to evict him and move in another tenant, Jenny; Mickey refuses to leave, and the two fall in love. They watch an artist unveil a kinetic sculpture that goes out of control, explodes, and burns down. Fearful that Castle may know his enemies in the syndicate, Mickey is persuaded to audition for a man connected with midwestern clubs but, unable to perform without an audience and suspecting a mobster, cuts the performance short. After a search for the mob-run crap game ends in a brawl with costumed doormen, and after Berson disappears, Mickey decides to keep his commitment to Castle and begins his first show at the club.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE)\n\n## Origins and style\n\n**From play to film.** Penn received a play script from Surgal that he judged not very good, but he thought its story applied to what was prevailing in the United States at the time: the timidity the McCarthy era had engendered, a sense of guilt, and a sort of silence and evasion. He and the playwright decided together to restructure a small portion of the play into a film.[5](https://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2010/october10/arthur-penn-interview.html)\n\n**European influence.** Penn had been to Paris and met with [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut) and [Jean-Luc Godard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-luc-godard), and he realized the filmmakers were trying to do similar things in their own national cinemas. [Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures) describes the result as an unusual drama inspired by the French New Wave.[5](https://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2010/october10/arthur-penn-interview.html) • [2](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone) Penn wanted a European-style art film with a distinct American identity, and he filmed most of the movie in unfamiliar locations in and around Chicago with the Belgian cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet, who had shot Alain Resnais's *Night and Fog* (1955) and Louis Malle's *The Fire Within* (1963) and later won the Academy Award for *Tess* (1979).[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218756/mickey-one) The film's black-and-white design, its composition and use of dark and light, and Aram Avakian's editing are central to its effect, and the jazz score by Eddie Sauter, with soulful saxophone solos by Stan Getz, supplies emotional weight in scenes where direction and performance do not.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218756/mickey-one)\n\n**The sculpture.** According to studio publicity, it was the actor [Kamatari Fujiwara](https://www.edgepedia.org/kamatari-fujiwara), who portrays the artist, who built the large kinetic sculpture named \"Yes\" in the film; in reality, Robert Fields, an industrial design student attending the School of the [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.edgepedia.org/art-institute-of-chicago), did the work, and the piece was installed on the Marina Towers apartment complex's ice rink.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059447/)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film opened to mixed reviews and poor box office; Columbia executives realized they had a commercial flop on their hands, and in some markets it was released to drive-ins rather than art houses.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218756/mickey-one) • [8](https://avclub.com/before-the-revolution-case-file-176-mickey-one-1798222813) Penn's career stood at a low point after the failure; he had been fired from *The Train* (1964), and when Robert Benton and David Newman's *Bonnie and Clyde* script was circulating, they thought *Mickey One* had a distinct European-American flavor and suggested offering the film to Penn. Beatty, who had worked with Penn on *Mickey One*, eventually persuaded him to take the job, and the 1967 film made both their reputations.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/24135/the-big-idea-bonnie-and-clyde)\n\nReassessment has been kinder. Sony Pictures calls the film a favorite of Martin Scorsese and notes that much of it was shot in what is now [Oprah Winfrey](https://www.edgepedia.org/oprah-winfrey)'s studio; the film has been newly remastered for digital release.[2](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone) Critics have placed it in the lineage of Kafka and the [French New Wave](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-new-wave), a fatalism wedded to paranoia and free-floating dread in which the reason for the mob's pursuit is never conclusively learned.[8](https://avclub.com/before-the-revolution-case-file-176-mickey-one-1798222813) A French retrospective assessment credits the film's exploratory ambition, mixing the French New Wave, the American gangster tradition, Soviet and Japanese cinema, Kafka, and the machines of Jean Tinguely, with announcing the shock of *Bonnie and Clyde* the following year.[9](https://www.dvdclassik.com/critique/mickey-one-penn)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Mickey One (1965), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19571-MICKEY-ONE)\n2. [Mickey One, Sony Pictures Entertainment](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mickeyone)\n3. [Mickey One (1965): Penn's Drama, Starring Warren Beatty and Alexandra Stewart, Emanuel Levy](https://emanuellevy.com/review/mickey-one-1965/)\n4. [The Big Idea - Bonnie and Clyde, Frank Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/24135/the-big-idea-bonnie-and-clyde)\n5. [Arthur Penn Interview, The Bluegrass Special](https://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2010/october10/arthur-penn-interview.html)\n6. [Mickey One, Jeff Stafford, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218756/mickey-one)\n7. [Mickey One (1965), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059447/)\n8. [Before The Revolution, Case File #176: Mickey One, The A.V. Club](https://avclub.com/before-the-revolution-case-file-176-mickey-one-1798222813)\n9. [Mickey One de Arthur Penn (1965), DVDClassik](https://www.dvdclassik.com/critique/mickey-one-penn)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Mickey One\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Mickey One](https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one](https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Mickey One\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-one. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Mickey One is Arthur Penn's black-and-white French New Wave-influenced drama starring Warren Beatty as a Detroit comic fleeing the mob to Chicago; a 1965 box-office flop, first Penn-Beatty film before Bonnie and Clyde." }