Mickey One

Mickey One is a 1965 surrealistic dramatic film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Its kaleidoscopic camerawork, film noir atmosphere, lighting and design aspects, Kafkaesque paranoia, philosophical themes and Warren Beattys performance in the title role turned the film into a cult classic. Penn and Surgal ignored the usual conventions of narrative for a freewheeling approach to their dramatic devices and Chicago locations.

After incurring the wrath of the Mafia, a standup comic Warren Beatty flees Detroit for Chicago, taking the name Mickey One. Eventually he returns to the stage, but is wary of becoming successful, afraid that he will attract too much attention. When he gets a booking at the upscale club Xanadu, he finds that his first rehearsal has become a special audition for an unseen man with a gruff voice. Paranoid that the mob has found him, Mickey runs away. He decides to find out who owns him and square himself with the mob, but he doesnt know what he did to anger them or what his debt is. Searching for a mobster who will talk to him, he gets beaten up by a bunch of nightclub doormen. Mickey finally concludes that its impossible to get away and be safe, so he pulls himself together and does his act anyway.In traveling about the city, Mickey continually sees a mute mimelike character known only as The Artist Kamatari Fujiwara. The Artist eventually unleashes his Rube Goldberglike creation, a deliberately selfdestructive machine called Yes, an homage to the sculptor Jean Tinguely. ........

Source: Wikipedia