Quicksand

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.

It is entirely true that Mickey Rooney was cast in many poor, meaningless films, and I include the entire Andy Hardy series in that category. However, he was cast with many good actors, and he learned his craft well. It's when you separate Mickey Rooney from Andy Hardy that you realize that he was a very good actor, despite the diminutive stature and the complete counterpoint to "good looks".

In "Quicksand", Rooney gives a solid, professional performance, aided by good writing and a fine supporting cast. Watching scenes with Rooney and Peter Lorre is a lesson in acting, for they both hold their ground and don't give an inch. Jean Cagney shows much of her big brother's creepy instigative powers as she puts Rooney through deeper and deeper trouble.

It's a good film, a "sleeper" and one to be seen and enjoyed.

One of the best "B" pictures ever. The milieu - garage, bar, shoddy amusement park - is appropriate and effectively conveyed. Small people, big dreams, temptation, one seemingly insignificant event leading to another: believable and compelling drama, played out in glaring light and sinister shadows. Peter Lorre's quiet menace and Jeanne Cagney's worldly sleaze are particularly outstanding. Mickey Rooney may be somewhat miscast, but his performance adds notably to the rising tension - as does everything else in this fine picture.

All-time memorable moment: Bumping the gypsy fortune teller's booth in the dark arcade, setting off flashing light and jangling music.

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.

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.