So much average

Good concept, poorly executed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

One of the first films M. Rooney did after all his andy hardy films. Co-stars Jeanne Cagney (james' sister!) and Barbara Bates. Rooney would make "All Ashore" with Bates a couple years later. Dan (Rooney) borrows money from the company till and it all goes downhill from there. and of course, keep an eye out for the talented but odd Peter Lorre (Nick). He has some weird relationship with Dan's girl Vera, and it just gets more awkward from there. Rooney narrates his own story, and it's a pretty sad tale. Seems to have been financed by Rooney and Lorre. It's just okay. Could have been so much better, but it looks like Rooney did the whole deal himself. I guess it's interesting for historical value, since it has Rooney, Lorre, and a couple others. Directed by Irving Pichel... one of the last things he did. only made a couple more after this. Currently showing on Midnight Movie channel. meh.

"Dan" (Mickey Rooney) is a nice guy who works as a mechanic at a local garage. One day while at lunch with a couple of friends a new waitress named "Vera" (Jeanne Cagney) walks in and he immediately becomes attracted to her. So he ambles up to the cash register and asks her out on a date for later than night. She eventually accepts. Unfortunately, prior to the date he realizes that he doesn't have any money. So he calls a friend who says he can give him the $20 he borrowed but he will have to wait until the morning. As a result he takes $20 out of the cash register where he works thinking that he can replace the money in the morning without anybody noticing. Big mistake. Anyway, rather than detail the rest of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that events take a sudden turn for the worse from this point on. I liked the performance of Mickey Rooney and even though the movie was clearly dated it still managed to maintain my interest from start to finish. Slightly above average.

This low budget thriller is a cautionary tale and a marvellous example of pure film noir. The predicament of an ordinary guy who makes a bad decision which propels him into a nightmare sequence of events, provides the basis for numerous noir stories and in typical fashion, "Quicksand" delivers a fast moving drama which is consistently compelling to watch and full of twists. Other familiar noir components include a gullible protagonist, a femme fatale, a good natured woman who's taken for granted, expressionistic lighting and an ambiance which becomes progressively darker as each new development produces dangers which are regularly more serious than he ones which preceded them.Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is a garage mechanic who having made a date with a waitress at the local diner desperately needs $20 to take her out. As he has no cash and no-one who can give him a loan until payday, he takes the money he needs from the garage till, fully confident that he'll be able to replace it before the bookkeeper carries out his regular check of the business' funds in a few days time.Dan finds himself in a tight spot when the bookkeeper arrives a couple of days early but neatly manages to cope with the situation by purchasing an expensive watch on credit and then pawning it straight away to get the cash he needs. His scheme is successful but a little while later, a detective visits him and explains that he's breached the terms of the credit agreement and that unless he can produce the full value of the watch within 24 hours he'll be arrested and charged with grand larceny. In order to deal with this problem and the complications that follow, Dan soon finds himself locked into a position where he continually has to commit crimes of ever increasing seriousness just to avoid having to pay the penalties for what he's previously done. Dan's crimes then escalate from mugging to robbery and strangling his boss before he finally goes on the run to Mexico.One of the most ironic aspects of the story is that Dan gets into more serious trouble than some of the other characters who are infinitely more evil and immoral than him. The girl from the diner is Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney). She proves to be manipulative, acquisitive and completely untrustworthy. Dan is so naive that when she takes him to see an expensive fur coat and her ex-lover on their first date, no alarm bells seem to ring in his head. Later, she encourages him to carry out a robbery and then, without his agreement, spends half of the proceeds to buy the fur coat.Vera's ex-lover is arcade owner Nick Dramoshag (Peter Lorre) who is totally unscrupulous and blackmails Dan because he has evidence which could be used to convict him for one of his crimes. Dan's boss Oren Mackey (Art Smith) is a amoral miser who's also duplicitous and at one stage even pulls a gun on Dan and threatens to report him to the police. The only person who's consistently decent and loyal to him is his original girlfriend Helen (Barbara Bates) who he rewards, most of the time, by treating her with a complete lack of affection or respect!Mickey Rooney shows convincingly that he's just as comfortable and effective in this kind of role as he is with his more familiar parts in comedies and musicals and the supporting cast, especially the wonderfully sleazy Peter Lorre are also excellent.

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.