A friend of mine owns a convenience store that is very near my home. Recently he stocked a huge table full of DVDs for sale really cheap - like anywhere from $2.99 to $9.99. Many of the DVDs are old movies that were filmed before I was born. I love old movies and the old actors so I have been purchasing several of the DVDs off of the table.

Quicksand, starring Mickey Rooney is one of the movies I bought. When I read the back of the movie, I thought This sounds like a movie that is going to aggravate me but since I like Mickey Rooney AND the movie was only $2.99 I bought it. Quicksand was filmed in 1950 and is a black and white movie.

PLOT

Dan (Mickey Rooney) Brady spent 4 years in the Navy but has been recently discharged and is now working as an Auto Mechanic in southern California. As he and his two buddies meet for lunch at a small diner one day, they are all captivated by Vera Novak(Jeanne Cagney), the beautiful clerk behind the counter. Dan charms Vera into going on a date with him when she gets off work that evening.

The only problem is that Dan is short of money. He needs $20 to take her to a certain nightclub and only has a couple of dollars in his wallet. After unsuccessfully trying to collect on a debt, Dan decides to borrow the money from the register and replace it the next day when he collects on the debt.

They go on their date, have not such a great time, but make plans for another date the next evening. When Dan arrives to work the next morning he discovers that the weekly accountant has arrived a couple of days early to balance the books. Dan is afraid if the $20 is not back in the register, his employer will call the police and charge him with theft.

He dashes off to the jewelry store, purchases a $100 watch on credit - paying a small deposit, then takes the watch down the street and hocks it for $30.00.

He returns to work just in time to stash the $20 back into the till.

However, that afternoon a representative from the jewelry shop comes to visit Dan. He tells Dan that it is against store policy to sell or pawn anything that is purchased on credit, and they know that Dan pawned the watch. Because he broke the policy, he must pay the full cost of the watch within 24 hours.

And Dan’s luck goes downhill from there. The more he tries to pay off his debt, the worse in debt he gets.

We see larceny, we see robbery, and alas, we see murder.


MY THOUGHTS

I liked this movie. I expected to be irked by it because I usually HATE movies where people get deeper and deeper into trouble. These kinds of movies usually have stuff happen that would not really happen in real life and it is aggravating. And this movie did have its share of implausible situations, but it was quick paced and not so outrageous that you’d wanna slap it, so those situations worked well in this movie.

The action never stopped in this movie. The 79 minutes goes by very quickly and no, I did not fall asleep watching it (that is my action guage - how fast did I fall to sleep during a movie?).

It has everything that the contemporary movies have, love triangles, extortion, theft and robbery, fist fights, knife fight, murder, a car jacking, and a gunfight with the po-po. Just the same as now, but much, much cleaner than the current movies.

I like this movie and glad I bought it for my DVD library.



CAST

Mickey Rooney is an excellent actor and shined in this part as Dan. The change from the suave player who would not dream of being anchored by any one girl, to desperate, anguished criminal being outwitted and vexed by the cold-hearted Vera, was superb.

I wasn’t familiar with Jeanne Cagney as I have not noticed her in any movie I have seen before. But she was a perfect villain. From the beginning of the movie, when she finally accepted the date with Dan, one could tell that she was also a player, playing the player Dan. She was great in this part, made me think that she was not having to act so hard - - that this was close to her real life personality.

Peter Lorre played Nick, the crooked owner of a Penny Arcade. Nick and Vera obviously had a history - whether he was her old employer or an old lover it never made clear - but I took it they may have been both. Peter Lorre was a weird bird anyway, he got lots of weird parts such as Mr. Strangedour in Muscle Beach Party (1964) or Felix in The Comedy of Terrors because he was so strange. He was, however, an extremely talented actor. He played the weird-o perfectly here. - snatched open those curtains and caught ’em kissing. Ewwwiee - woulda scared me.

Barbara Bates (1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen) played Helen, the sweet girl in love with Dan Brady. She did not have much of a part until the very end of the movie. She is very beautiful but was not that great or believable in her part. She did awlright, I guess, with the kind of silly part she had as Helen. Helen was the only character that I really thought was not well developed.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Huh? On this old thing? You are joking, right? The only special features are ‘chapter stops’.

RATING

This movie is not rated.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD