Quicksand

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.

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.

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.

If you have then this film is for you. Mickey Rooney plays a mechanic who wants to take a waitress out on a date but doesn't have enough cash to impress her with. He steals and then needs to commit more crimes and bigger crimes to cover his tracks. Finally his walk on the wildside ends in murder. But is the guy dead or just knocked out?

Without giving away the ending a similar film is Detour which had a lot of trouble with the censors for its own ending. In my opinion braving the censors gives Detour more punch. But Quicksand is still an enjoyable Film Noir and one of my favourite Mickey Rooney films. We see Rooney in too many musicals and family films. Quicksand gives him a dark side.