(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.

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.

Mickey One is a strange film about a man on the run and living on the edge. Warren Beatty takes this new name after his business manager Franchot Tone tells him the mob has a contract on his life. At first Beatty can't figure it out. But it gradually dawns on him that he's been living it up high on the hog with the mob's money, $20,000.00 dollars of it. When Tone informs him of the tab, Beatty decides to run.

He lives for years in obscurity, but he's a performer with a compulsive need for an audience. Soon he's working at a swank joint in Chicago owned by Hurd Hatfield and Jeff Corey. But too much attention could bring him to the attention of people who don't forget.

Mickey One is a strange almost Kafkaesque type movie. It comes considerably short of being a classic. Still it's an interesting work and it has its following.

One other role of note is that of comedian Teddy Hart who plays Beatty's new found agent in Chicago. Hart was the brother of lyricist Larry Hart had a good career as a second banana comic. He's the short fellow with the rubbery expressive face.

Mickey One doesn't make it to the top tier, still it's an interesting work.