Quicksand (1950)

Too much of everything

Expected more

Best movie ever!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Mechanic Mickey Rooney wants to take Jeanne Cagney out on a date, but he's broke and a buddy who owes him $20 won't pony up right away. So he borrows $20 from the garage's cash register and has some fun with Cagney. All is well, until the next day when his buddy's out on sea and the garage's accountant comes in a few days early... Rooney buys a watch on an installment plan and hocks it straight away to put the $20 back. Wrong move, as that is against the law. Either he pays for the watch the next day, or else... And that is only the start of Rooney's nightmare, where each bad choice he makes is followed by a worse one...Rooney ('The Strip', 'Drive A Crooked Road'), in one of his first more dramatic roles, does a good job here, aside from his schoolboy looks and his occasional voice-over narration which is spoken way too casual and doesn't fit the predicament he's in. Maybe he was still struggling to get out of his Andy Hardy straight-jacket? He gets great support tho from femme fatale Jeanne Cagney ('Don't Bother To Knock') whose only interest is an expensive mink coat she's been eyeing for some time. Peter Lorre ('The Maltese Falcon') plays a smaller, but important, part as the shady owner of a crummy arcade hall, where Cagney once worked. He is a treat to watch as usual.Competently directed by Irving Pichel ('They Won't Believe Me'), it's the story by Robert Smith ('Sudden Fear') and the great shadow-rich cinematography by Lionel Lindon ('The Manchurian Candidate') that firmly push this movie into noir territories, also helped by the majority of the movie taking place during night-time. The scenes inside Lorre's arcade especially are worth the price of admission. All in all, it's a good B-noir that pushes all the right buttons, except for those really awkward voice-overs...

Mickey Rooney plays Dan. Dan is a thinks he's a ladies man... wants to be with all the pretty girls and has one of them in-love with him but he hardly notices her. There's a new blonde in town Dan falls for - but chick is the expensive type and only cares about herself. Dan manages to land a date with her but forgot that he's broke and won't get paid until the next day. He steals 20 bucks from his cash register at work and plans on paying it back the next day. But that stolen 20 dollars for a date with an expensive blonde costed him more than just paying it back and some sweat - it might just land him in prison. It's a film you'll just have to watch to see how 20 dollars and a date turns into more than Dan ever cared to bargain for.This is a pretty good crime film and somewhat interesting - I enjoyed it.8/10

Quicksand (1950) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A squeaky clean mechanic (Mickey Rooney) asks a hot blonde (Jeanne Cagney) out on a date and she accepts but he has a problem and that problem is that he's broke. He winds up snatching twenty-bucks from his bosses cash register but this here just leads to one problem after another and he soon finds himself running from the police. This crime-noir film really isn't anything overly special but I think fans of Rooney are going to find it interesting as he both ruins and helps the film. He somewhat ruins it because he's just not believable in the early scenes where he's picking up the hot girl, acting like a poor boy and there's even a couple scenes where he's smoking and obviously not knowing what he's doing. The low-budget nature of the film probably kept an outtake in where he tries to light a cigarette but messes up and has to strike a match to light it again. The early noir moments of our typical male hero just really wasn't made for someone like Rooney. However, it somewhat works in the film's favor because the screenplay here is pretty stupid as what we've basically got is an idiot guy who does something stupid, tries to correct it by doing something dumber and soon this dumb guy is running for his life. The entire premise is pretty far-fetched and at times very silly but this is where Rooney starts to work. Since you don't expect someone like Rooney to be a criminal these dumb mistakes his character makes seems somewhat natural because of who is doing them. Rooney makes it somewhat plausible that his character, being new to crime, would commit such stupid mistakes over and over and on this level the performance and movie works. I thought it was rather fun seeing Rooney doing some of this stuff including strangling a man and getting into several fights with the girl's ex-boss who is played by Peter Lorre. Seeing good boy Rooney going up against sleaze ball Lorre made for some fun scenes. Both actors are just fine in their roles as is Cagney as the femme fatale. You can't help but enjoy her performance because she perfectly captures that poor brat who will take advantage of any sap just to get what she wants. Barbara Bates plays a woman in love with Rooney and we even get Richard Lane playing the main cop. I think noir fans will probably find a lot of the movie silly due to Rooney so that's why I think it's going to appeal to his fans more than anyone else. The movie has a lot of silly moments and I think it's fair to say that too much happens to this guy in such a short amount of time but it still features enough to make it worth viewing. It's certainly not a classic but as a fan of Rooney I enjoyed it.

Not only is the delightful blonde Jeanne my favorite from the Cagney family, but QUICKSAND registers as an admirably made thriller, and your surprise at discovering this movie's awesome quality will be simultaneous with the one given by an exquisite cast—Rooney, Mrs. Cagney and Lorre who gives here one of his most accomplished roles. And one characteristic of this flick is that, by its gusto and atmosphere, it makes Lorre's performance look neat and appropriate. Built like a folk tale, QUICKSAND has the symbolic topography required. Part of the disconcerting atmosphere are also the scenes with short actors—e.g., those where Lorre, Rooney and Mrs. Cagney are together in the frame. In fact, she looked taller than Rooney.Jeanne Cagney plays a mean woman, and Rooney is shown as symbolically disputed by two opposed women; in fact, almost everything seems, in this folk tale, naively symbolical. The events are symbolical; the topography, as noted, the surroundings, the sets, the hall of games, the net of streets where people get lost, are seen, find each other. And the tale is handled with a secret joy, a secret enjoyment.Rooney's performance is particularly good, served by his air of a naughty adolescent. It also gives the movie that suggestion of marveled realism. Like in the folk—tales, the impression is that of plausible facts given as a morality.Lorre's role doesn't suggest the cliché, nor a stock character, but an energetic brio in making a meaningful character from just a few traits; and from here it is that Lorre can show what a master he was.Peculiar, I would add, to this extremely peculiar noir movie is its freshness and its sense of excitement; as a noir, it looks masterful. I could add only a handful of _noirs this good.QUICKSAND is characterized by freshness, brio, genuine excitement, neatness in execution and admirable clarity, a marvelous handling of a simple tale, and an almost unmatched atmosphere, a peculiar sense of the atmosphere, which boosts the choice cast's performances. It nicely sums some of the traits that are defining for the American cinema. Eddie Muller, a terrific noir connoisseur, is a bit wrong not including QUICKSAND in his list of the 25 best _noirs.A word about Jeanne Cagney—this blonde, a bit meaty, streetwise, ironic, had the artistic brio of her family; she was given such popular roles as a woman of energy and strength. And if her career was somewhat discreet, it was also fairly mentionable. She was 31 yrs in QUICKSAND. From 20 yrs to 46 she has been in the movies, gracing them with her maybe unglamorous but electrifying appeal and genuine beauty. QUICKSAND is perhaps her most noted movie and role.A lot of plain rubbish is hailed nowadays as noir classics; QUICKSAND deserves, by its admirable qualities of style, directing, atmosphere, pace, cast, performances, charm, sense of storytelling, a place in any top 10. And Jeanne Cagney was hot.