Mikey and Nicky is a 1976 American crime drama film written and directed by Elaine May. It stars John Cassavetes as a desperate small-time mobster and Peter Falk as his longtime, childhood friend. The supporting cast features Ned Beatty, Carol Grace, Rosee Arrick, and noted acting teacher Sanford Meisner. The production ran over its schedule and budget, leading to tensions between May and Paramount Pictures, who revoked her final cut privilege. When finally released on December 21, 1976, the film bombed at the box office, which led to May not directing again for a decade. Her director's cut of the film was screened in 1986; she subsequently made another director's cut, which was released by the Criterion Collection in 2019. Plot When Nicky (John Cassavetes) calls Mikey (Peter Falk) yet again to bail him out of trouble—this time a contract on his life for money he stole from his mob boss—Mikey, as always, shows up to help. Overcoming the obstacles of Nicky's paranoia and blind fear, Mikey gets him out of the hotel where he has holed up, and starts to help him plan his escape, but Nicky keeps changing the plan, and a hitman (Ned Beatty) is hot on their trail. As they try to make their escape, the two friends have to confront issues of betrayal, regret, and the value of friendship versus self-preservation. Cast Peter Falk as Mikey John Cassavetes as Nicky Ned Beatty as Kinney Rose Arrick as Annie Carol Grace as Nellie William Hickey as Sid Fine Sanford Meisner as Dave Resnick Joyce Van Patten as Jan M. Emmet Walsh as bus driver Cast notes May originally cast Paramount president Frank Yablans as a gangster, but Charles Bluhdorn, the chairman of parent company Gulf+Western, was not amused, and demanded that she recast. Production The film's original $1.6 million budget grew to $2.2 million, causing original distributor Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation to drop the project. May had agreed to deduct any over-budget costs from her salary in exchange for final cut privilege. Paramount picked up the film, with studio President Frank Yablans forming "an ironclad deal" with May for a $1.8 million budget; the agreement also stipulated that the completed film must be delivered to the studio no later than June 1, 1974. Principal photography (which took place at night) began in Philadelphia in May 1973, lasting through August, and continued in Los Angeles from January