Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Quicksand (1950)

I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a Mickey Rooney movie, although I’m a huge fan. Rooney was a child star of many fantastically popular films like Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Boys Town and many more. Here we see Mickey as a young man, trying an adult part on for size.

Rooney is an auto mechanic who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. A war veteran working at a Studebaker dealership, we see him snub a perfectly nice, white-bread girl (Barbara Bates) he was going with and pursue a sleazy blonde vamp portrayed by Jeanne Cagney (Jimmy Cagney’s sister).

Although she plays hard to get, he persuades the girl to go out with him after she gets off at 9:30 p.m. The only problem is, he’s broke. He had lent his friend Buzz (Jimmy Dodd - Mickey Mouse Club) $20 and tries to get it back but Buzz fluffs him off, so Rooney gets the bright idea to tap the dealership till for the double sawbuck. This decision leads to an endless series of complications that rapidly escalate until he is ready for San Quentin, all in a matter of days. I don’t want to give much more away because it’s really interesting to watch how the story unfolds, and I’d like you to see for yourself.

Quicksand benefits from a good story; a morality tale showing how one crime leads to another; but even more so from the performances of the actors. Besides Rooney, who carries the load quite handily, we have a superlative cast of characters, all of whom appear upright, but each has a mercenary side once the opportunity arises.

The great Peter Lorre (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca) plays a sleazy arcade operator who is the sometime(s) lover of Vera (Jeanne Cagney). Lorre, a veteran scene stealer, gives a strong performance and has quite a convincing fistfight with Rooney. Art Smith plays the car dealer who decides to profit from Rooney’s larceny and does a marvelous take on a sharp businessman that will have the leftists in the audience convinced that he is the prototype of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Ken Lay all rolled into one. Minerva Urecal plays a shrill landlady that makes life interesting for Rooney, and Vera (Jeanne Cagney) - she’s just mean as heck and looking out for number 1, with no regard for anybody else. Watch for familiar face Jack Elam in a bit part.

The Irving Pichel direction is good, with nice expressionistic cinematography shot in and around Santa Monica c. 1949. Plenty of historical interest for natives of the area, I’m sure.

The one area that keeps Quicksand from crossing over to greatness is the cop-out ending, typical of Hollywood’s obsession with half measures. If it had ended with bravado like the similarly forgotten but brilliant Detour, it would rate a full five stars and be a film noir of renown. However, it is still above average with Rooney effectively shedding his child actor knee pants and putting on some man-sized acting britches.

The DVD is in Black and White, and is surprisingly well preserved for a public domain title. The movie runs 97 minutes in 4X3 theatrical format, and is available from Image Entertainment or in the Suspense 20 Pack, both of which have exactly zero, zilch, nada, extras.

Some of these small budget crime drama/noirs are well worth seeing and I’m surprised that more folks are not raving about them as much as I do. Especially since they are so affordable and usually much more satisfying than a 20 buck late model DVD that will often leave you wondering why the heck you bought such a crummy movie.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening