Mikey One (1965) Bosa Nova Jazz Noir Nightmare

"Courage is Freedom."

A Transitional Noir directed by Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man, Badlands, Night Moves).

American New Wave?  Beat / Bosa Nova / Jazz inspired? You decide. The screenplay was by Alan Surgal. The Cinematography was by Ghislain Cloquet (French Noir Le trou (1960), Classe tous risques (1960)). Music of the soundtrack was arranged by Eddie Sauter and performed by tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. The music has a sort of a late fifties early sixties Beatnik-Jazz cool vibe.

The film stars Warren Beatty (Splendor In the Grass (1961), All Fall Down (1962), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Dick Tracy (1990)) as Mickey One, Alexandra Stewart (L'eau à la bouche (1969), Obsessions (1969) La mariée était en noir aka The Bride Wore Black (1968) as Jenny Drayton. 

Warren Beatty as Mickey One

Alexandra Stewart as Jenny Drayton

Bringing the cast some serious Classic Noir cinematic memory are Hurd Hatfield (The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Unsuspected (1947)) as Ed Castle, Franchot Tone (Phantom Lady (1944), Dark Waters (1944), Jigsaw (1949),  I Love Trouble (1948), as Rudy Lapp, and Jeff Corey (The Killers (1946), Brute Force (1947), The Flame (1947), The Gangster (1947), Canon City (1948), Hideout (1949), City Across the River (1949), Follow Me Quietly (1949), Scene of the Crime (1949), Fourteen Hours (1951), Transitional Noirs Once a Thief (1965), In Cold Blood (1967), and The Boston Strangler (1968) as Larry Fryer.

Hurd Hatfield as Ed Castle

Jeff Corey as Larry Fryer

Playing Mickey's theatrical agent is Teddy Hart (The Fat Man (1951)) a real life sad sack, droopy eyed  comedian of Broadway stage and screen as George Berson. He also appeared as Wille the junk man in a couple of episodes of TV's Car 54 Where Are You. 

Teddy Hart as George Berson

Jeri Jensen as Helen

Donna Michelle as The Girl

With Donna Michelle as The Girl, Jeri Jensen as the waitress Helen, and Kamatari Fujiwara appears as the mute Kinetic Artist. 

Paranoia Nightmare

A Bosa Nova starts playing and the titles superimpose over a steam room. Four big guys, ya know BIG guys, wearing towels pointing and laughing their assess off, they are seated around a man wearing an overcoat gloves and a bowler hat. 

One of the laughers gets up and pats him on the back. The man does an old vaudevillian stick tipping his head and letting the bowler roll down his arm and then he catches it with his hand.  A comedian. A Detroit comedian. Star of the Lapland nightclub.

He's Hot but he's Cool.

He's got a hot chick. Hot. Some of you know the kind. Beautiful. Sexy. Naughty. You want her. Point your finger and she comes. Not because of any superiority in status. It's because she wants You just as badly. And she gets what she wants. 

The kind of woman that turns heads. The kind of women that can make a guy walk right into a telephone pole. She knows what she's doing. She knows the effect. Long hair. Clingy clothes. The kind of women that doesn't wear her panties. She's ready for action. A feline on the prowl. He's got Sex. 

He's got a hot car. A hot gig. But his Achilles heel is that he likes to gamble. He's got it all but then he's got nothing. He's trapped. He owes a fortune. He was drunk at a craps table and doesn't know what he he's into the mob for.

We get all of this information out of the opening credits

He climbs up a spiral staircase to Rudy Lapp's office. Here if you know the backgrounds we get a good dose of Noirsville of both cinematic memory and reality...

Franchot Tone as Rudy Lapp

(Lapp is played by a brutally disfigured Franchot Tone (Phantom Lady (1944), Dark Waters (1944), I Love Trouble (1948), Jigsaw (1949)) - Here is a real life Noir Story for you - He got into a drunken fist fight with Tom Neal (Detour (1945)) in 1951. It was over, what else, a broad, not just any broad, it was the notorious Barbara Payton. Neal rearranged Tone's nose and cheek and landed him unconscious with a concussion in a hospital for 18 hours. If plastic surgery restored Tone's face to what you see in this film his face prior must have been totally destroyed. Goodbye leading man roles. Then what does Tone do? He marries Payton. her vows last five days. She is still playing hide the sausage with Neal. Tone's got the photos... Tone divorces her fifty-three days later. He picks up some character roles mostly in TV for the rest of his career.  

Neal and Payton's careers get detoured they both are blacklisted. They try to capitalize on the publicity by appearing together in a low budget Western - The Great Jesse James Raid in (1953) and touring in a stage production of The Postman Always Rings Twice. It bombs after two months. Neal moves to Palm Springs and starts a landscaping business. In 1961 he marries Gail Bennett of Las Vegas. Four years later on April 1, 1965 Neal walks into the Tyrol restaurant in Idyllwild a resort outside of Palm Springs. he tells  Robert Balzar and James Willett that he had just killed his wife. She was shot in the head with a .45. He goes to trial for murder the jury believes his cooked up story. He doesn't get the gas chamber. He gets one to fifteen for manslaughter gets out after six years in 1971 and dies of heart failure eight months later. 

By the time of the fistfight Peyton, who always claimed she had "ants in her pants," was already married twice and had notorious affairs with Howard Hughes, Bob Hope,[ Woody Strode, Guy Madison, George Raft, John Ireland, Steve Cochran and a Texas oilman named Bob Neal. After being blacklisted she made a few more films, a couple of those were in the UK. 

"Celebrity bartender and self-proclaimed hustler Scotty Bowers has alleged that for a time, she was regarded as a high-class sex worker, much in demand. From 1955 to 1963, her alcoholism and drug addiction led to multiple skirmishes with the law, which included arrests for passing bad checks and eventually an arrest on Sunset Boulevard for prostitution. Payton was offered the option of being admitted to a detoxification unit, and said, "I'd rather drink and die."" On May 8th 1967 she dies at her parents' home of heart and liver failure at the age of 39.)

Back to our story

Lapland is the name of Rudy's Club. The Comedian asks Rudy Lapp how much he owes, he guesses $10,000, then $20,000 Lapp says nothing. The Comedian  asks who wants him and throws out some names. Lapp nods at one of them. The Comedian panics, he's nervous, the magic isn't there, he's flopping and his life depends on this gig and his shtick hitting on all cylinders. 

He runs out of the loading dock of the club and into the night Rudy follows to the door and yells  "George, you can't runaway you'll be an animal!"

"...you'll be an animal!"

He's got to disappear, He burns his I.D.'s, address book, and social security card and to make sure he buries the ashes. He's nobody. He slipped some money to a baggageman and is crashed out in a baggage car on a Northwestern RR passenger train to Chicago. 

The train slows down approaching the station. He wakes up, stands up, and pulls a pint bottle out of his jacket pocket. He hits it. He asks the baggageman if this is Chicago,  the man nods yes. He stumbles to the door to the vestibule, opens it, and steps down to the edge of the car. 

He jumps. Loses his balance and takes a tumble. When he regains his footing he's staring at a hobo jungle and the Bo's who  are watching him. Welcome to our world. 

The jungle is at the edge of a auto wrecking & scrap yard. There's a gantry crane picking up auto bodies filled with scrap and dropping the hulk into a hydraulic crusher. The finished product is a cubed car.

Here we get a some comedy shtick. 

Is it really happening or is it the paranoia shifting gears in our comedians head? We see cops and reporters. Wanna be WeeGees are popping flashes. A cop with a mike in the control shack for the gantry is doing a running commentary on the proceedings.

The cop with the mike describes the way the mob has of disposing a body. Stuff it in a hulk. Gantry the hulk to a crusher and cube it for feeding into a blast furnace. No mess. No body for the family to scream over or the papers to report on or the police to identify. No grieving family. Total death. 

The Comedian runs away from the crusher. He is beckoned to by a mute riding a wagon that is filled with scavenged junk. He ignores him and run out of the yard dodging forklifts as he goes. 

Later we see the Comedian is traversing alleys and walking through skid row. He stops at New Life a storefront mission. He enters. 

He is met by a gaunt man and a woman dressed in black. Holy Joe and Sister Bible Thumper. American Gothic. Holy Joe is a smiler. "Smiley" brings out a cup of coffee and what looks like a bowl of cream of wheat. 

To receive his hand out he has to listen to Holy Joe read from the gospel. Sister Bible Thumper controls the show. Its all played so solemn and serious until "Smiley" opens his mouth and speaks. 

Stuttering his way through the scripture. While Sister Bible thumper mouths silently in encouragement.

Smiley: J-Jeramiah was e-e-entered into the dungeon and J-Jerimiah had r-r-remained there f-f-for m-m-many d-d-days..... 

It's a hilarious sequence. 

Cut to some bums rolling a drunk. The Comedian watches them clean the guy out even taking his pants. They run off and he follows. 

From one of them he grabs the drunks stolen social security card. With the card the Comedian goes into a "Rent-A-Man" storefront. He walks up to the counter and hands the man in charge the social security card. 

The name on the card is Miklos Wunejeva. The man tries to pronounce the name gives up and christens him Mickey One. He's got a new identity. 

His first job is doing the garbage at a cafeteria kitchen. He meets a waitress Helen they like what they see. The next shot is of Mickey on tar beach drinking a can of beer and staring out at the stars. Helen is in a robe. The subtext is that they had sex.

Helen: Who are you?

Mickey One: I'm the king of the silent pictures. I'm hiding out till the talkies blow over. Will you leave me alone?

As Mickey drops down the fire escape he stops to hold Helen's hand and tells her that she's "a nice girl." While Helen responds "if you ever need me." 

If you ever need me....

We next see Mickey walking along a sidewalk passing various dive bars. He spots a nightclub with continuous shows. 

He goes in sits down has a drink. He watches the MC tell jokes between the acts. Mickey stays long enough through the day that he's memorized the MC's stick. 

And when the MC starts another round of jokes Mickey pipes in from the peanut gallery the punchlines. He so good at telling the same jokes that the MC invites him up on the stage. 

Mickey's got a new gig under a new name. With some confidence back Mickey goes to find a theatrical agent. He finds George Berson who is known for handling peelers. Berson goes to a show and likes what he sees. The kid is a natural and, most importantly, he does his own material.

Berson books him into a strip club and Mickey becomes a big hit. 

Berson just doing his job goes downtown to the upper end Xanadu Club where he convinces Larry Fryer the money manager to ask Ed Castle the Clubs owner and talent impresario to hear Berson out about this new comedian. 

They go to the strip club and are floored by Mickey's act. It goes Noirsville for Mickey when Castel becomes obsessed with booking Mickey into the Xanadu.

At this point in the story Mickey also meets Jenny at his tenement apartment. His landlady has been trying to throw him out and this isn't the first time he's confronted her when she was trying to show his flop. 

This time he opens his door early in the morning, just off from his gig at the club. The landlady's wheelchair bound husband is trying to change the lock. 

The landlady is talking to Jenny who is seated on the bed. The landlady grabs Jenny's money out of her hand. Mickey chases the landlady and her husband out. Mickey to Jenny "You. Out!" Jenny tells Mickey "but I just gave her all my money. It's dark out and I can't just....." It's meet cute Noir Style. Mickey tells her she can sleep in the tub, and adds chivalrously, it's got a lock on it. Mickey, apprehensively asks if Rudy sent her. She reacts perplexed. 

You out!

At this point we get a little new wave sequence with a sped up sequence of Mickey cleaning the apartment. 

Jenny cries about the situation she's in and Mickey goes into a comedy schtick to cheer her up. They hit it off. They like what each other sees. She picks up a small case and uses the bathroom. 

Mickey uses this opportunity to search Jenny's purse. She was telling the truth she has no money. When she comes out He tells her her full name and that he knows she didn't lie to him about the money. He offers her a drink or a smoke. She doesn't do either. He has a drink, notes that he knows it's morning, and tells her that it could be because his old man used to be a lush. 

Jenny: Is your father dea....

Mickey: How would I know.... My mother was a waitress on a fast streetcar line. I don't want you to get the wrong Idea about her... she was a. She was a tramp. [laughs] Naah, I'm a wise guy. Listen I was the only kid in the neighborhood who had to go out in the streets to learn how to swear. She never talked dirty. Later on I found out that the words I learned she did. She hag us in some fleabag hotel, she wanted me to grow up like other kids. So I did. I grew up like any other red blooded American kid with six different misters for fathers and a mother who is on her honeymoon always. She never drank or smoked. 

We don't know if its entirely schtick, partially schtick or mostly true.

Later, Jenny asks Mickey if he's in the theatrical business. It startles Mickey and he asks her why? She replies that he's quick, that's all. he tells her that he is a comic.

Mickey tells her about working a stage.

Mickey: Sometimes its the only place in the whole world where you are free. I mean a couple of hours every night, at least, you're the best person in the world you ever wanted to be. Yer self the exact person they want you to be. They clap for.

Mickey spills his guts telling Jenny everything that went down in Detroit and how he's been on the run the last four years. We get a flashback with more details here, to the night he ran out of Lapland. 

He explains his paranoia and the nebulous nature of what he's into the mob for.

Jenny: What are you guilty of?

Mickey: I'm guilty of not being innocent.

Noirsville

The first time I watched Mickey One I got to the "YES" sequence the Kinetic artwork of Kamatari Fujiwara.  I must have gotten interrupted, and then was under the impression for years that that was the end of the film where Fujiwara is floundering around in the foam after the artwork catches fire. That happen about the halfway point  and I never watched the whole film all the way thru until a few days ago. 

Once you realize it's partially a paranoia nightmare and delves occasionally into metaphor and told in a mélange of what you could call American New Wave, with sort of what you could call Jazz Music Video interludes, stand up Comedy bits, silly Fantasy segments, a Love story, and Noir, you just go with the flow. It's not going to fit neatly into your conception of any one of the above. Let that wave break over you. It's a creative flush of ideas after 30 years of MPPC and Legion of Decency meddling.

 Does it work? It's just a matter of taste. I love some segments way more than the others. It's essentially about a man afraid of himself and the woman who helps him to overcome it. 

Warren Beatty is very compelling as the alienated comedian, Franchot Tone is both scary to look at and pathetically tragic as Lapp. Hurd Hatfield is amazingly animated as the obsessed club owner. Jeff Corey and Teddy Hart are reasonably believable as the showbiz folk. Alexandra Stewart holds her own against these heavyweights. Musically, there was definitely that early sixties Brazilian influence possibly sparked by Black Orpheus (1959) and of course by the world wide hit The Girl from Ipanema of 1965. A film to be experienced at least once 7/10.