Mikey and Nicky

Intense, baffling and irresistible opening from writer-director Elaine May, introducing her two title characters, John Cassavetes as Nicky and Peter Falk as Mikey, with substantial obfuscation, in the controversial, rarely-seen, intimate gangster drama that nearly ended her career, Mikey And Nicky, 1976.

The second scene in the picture and the first with the principals (Peter Falk, John Cassavetes) together, writer-director Elaine May details just how freaked out small-time Philadelphia gangster Nicky is, believing he's about to be killed, and why he's called his life-long friend and colleague Mikey, in Mikey And Nicky, 1976.

Calmer and higher ranking Philadelphia gangster Mikey (Peter Falk) has convinced his childhood pal Nicky (John Cassavetes), who thinks he's about to get whacked, to leave the hotel where's he's holed up, but we've no idea who Ned Beatty is, or who he's talking to, in writer-director Elaine May's Mikey And Nicky, 1976.