Quicksand

One of the lesser-known treasures of classic film noir, this tough little chronicle of a hapless boy taken on a criminal joy ride by his own uncontrollable lusts succeeds partly because of the brick-house design of Cornell Woolrich's original story, partly because of its ingeniously chosen cast. Pairing the still fresh-faced Mickey Rooney with the creepily worn-looking Jeanne Cagney instantly suggests corruption; the subtext that the boy is just a pawn in a weird game being played between this nasty dame and her lover (Peter Lorre, looking one drink over the line) makes the spine crawl.

Good crime noir story with a highly energetic(what's new?) Mickey Rooney in the lead role. He also narrated the film and tied together well all loose ends. Great Santa Monica Pier chase scene at the end with a well conditioned Rooney doing all his own stunts. Top camera-work in B&W, with all the light and shadows of great noir. Peter Lorre was his terrific evil, slimy self in a small role, and Jimmy Cagney's sister Jeanne was stiffly effective as Rooney's self-centered girlfriend.

Not a wasted second in the action, and it moves along at breakneck speed as Rooney plays this 40s-50's typical noir morality tale of how criminals typically go from the first petty crime all the way to the worst crimes and finally end up in prison, but always have nice girls waiting for them when they get out.

Interesting to note that almost all his crimes were witnessed, and had the cops on him almost before he finished committing them. Not quite the case in the real world as "nobody sees anything" today and most crimes go unsolved. Don't you wish all crimes were so easily solved as in this film? It would be a very different world than the one we have.

This independently made film is aptly named, as Dan (Mickey Rooney) falls into a trap and every move he makes to get out just sends him deeper into trouble.

Dan, a mechanic, wants to take out Vera (Jeanne Cagney), the new cashier at the local diner. He spends all afternoon trying to either borrow 20 dollars from someone or trying to get someone who owes him 20 dollars to pay him back. He reasons with himself that today is Monday and the guy who audits the books for the garage doesn't come buy until Thursday. So he steals a 20 out of the register at work to pay for the evening out.

But then the auditor comes by on Tuesday, the next day, before he's had a chance to get the twenty dollars that all of these friends of his have borrowed at one time or another. So he goes across the street, buys a 100 dollar watch with a dollar down on the installment plan, and then goes down the street and pawns it for 30 dollars. He replaces the 20 dollars he stole from the garage before it can be discovered, but now he's in debt for one hundred dollars for a watch he doesn't own anymore.

Dan makes worse decisions with even steeper moral and legal consequences as he commits bigger crimes to cover up smaller ones, until less than a week later he's running from a murder charge. Or is he? Watch and find out.

Along the way, Vera turns out to be the devil standing on his shoulder, encouraging him to take bigger more illegal chances. The angel on his shoulder is Helen (Barbara Bates), who in spite of barely knowing Dan is almost a stalker when it comes to following him around and mooning after him. But at least she does have good moral judgement.

There are good performances by the entire cast, but I really liked Taylor Holmes as the criminal attorney Dan manages to carjack at gunpoint towards the end of the film. He has a folksy charm and warmth about him that I imagine would endear him to clients, judges, and juries alike. I would like to know his inspiration for his part, because I'm sure whoever it was he was a successful lawyer.

This was really a very versatile role for Rooney, his second since leaving MGM. Just don't look for the exuberant Andy Hardy of his MGM days - In this role Rooney is running for his life from some kind of trouble the entire running time, and when he's not doing that he's knocking a few back at some bar and waxing cynically philosophical.

Quicksand is immediately at pains to establish that auto-mechanic Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is a *very* average guy, there's no monotone narrator to say, "Be careful or this may happen to you" but there might as well be. The first fifteen minutes or so drag along interminably through a lunch-counter and a mechanic shot before Dan "borrows" a twenty from the register to take a blonde out dancing, thus beginning a brief but intense criminal career.

Rooney is surprisingly convincing as the dissatisfied, and really quite dishonest, mechanic. He doesn't try anything cute, playing this role as straight as any I've ever seen out of him (admittedly not much), though his "inner monologue" narration rapidly wears out its welcome. Despite his being set up as an everyman character, I found him pleasingly sneaky, cowardly, and unlikeable.

The afore-mentioned blonde is Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney). Brady has already been provided with a self-sacrificing brunette good girl that he's trying to get rid of, so right away you know that the only question you've got to answer about the blonde Vera is whether she's a broad, a dame, a floozie, or a hussy (turns out she's two of the four, but I'll let you find out which). Cagney is really only passable as the manipulative, materialistic, femme fatale.

Peter Lorre shows up, barely, as Nick, the crooked owner of a penny arcade where Vera once worked. Lorre and Rooney engage in some minor fisticuffs over Cagney (who must have been thinking that her brother could take them both with one hand tied behind his back).

After the tepid opening Quicksand actually does build up a decent head of steam as Dan Brady sinks deeper and deeper into the eponymous morass. It's clearly a written-to-order morality play but it moves quickly, punches hard enough to get the job done, and isn't entirely unbelievable. In the end melodrama beats film noir by a nose, or is it a couple furlongs? I couldn't help thinking Quicksand zigged when it should have zagged.

Here's an unusual film noir because it stars an actor that you wouldn't think would be in a crime film: Mickey Rooney.

But, like a lot of comedians, singers and other non-dramatic actors, Rooney could surprise you with his dramatic talents. He wasn't all Andy Hardy fluff.

Rooney was a fine, fine actor and he does a good job here in this role as a man who makes one mistake after another. Those mistakes compound into a major crime and Rooney winds up in major trouble. In fact, it's pretty amazing to watch this unfold as one small crime leads to one thing after another making things worse and worse as it goes along.

Jeanne Cagney is good as the typically-floozy blonde who is prevalent in so many of these film noirs. Barbara Bates is the wholesome good girl, but she really makes some stupid decisions late in the film, too. In other words, the three main characters are not evil people but they have major flaws.

Overall, it's an odd film of sorts and one that starts slowly but gets better and better as the story progresses. Definitely worth a look to see Rooney play this kind of role.