Quicksand (1950)
Director - Irving Pichel
The Plot
Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is just another post-war vet regular guy. In a simple attempt to impress a woman, he "borrows" twenty dollars from the cash register at the auto shop where he works. He intends to put it back the next day. Instead he goes from petty theft to grand larceny to robbery and finally murder.
Film Notes
For Your Dark Amusement
On location around the old Santa Monica amusement piers, a post-war veteran is a just another lost soul among the Joylands, Photo-matics, Whips and Dodge 'em cars. Days are for toiling while nights open up to a world of boardwalk gypsy fortune tellers, lonely sailors on shore leave, and desperate women trying to get on with their lives.
The title is "Quicksand" but it's the never ending sound of waves crashing on the beach of a seedy Southern California that provide a more fitting metaphor for Mickey Rooney (as Dan Brady) and his attempts to get ahead.
The Night of Mid-Century
Regardless of how we now view the prosperity of the 1950's, it was not boom times for everyone. The order of the day was not all innocence and light. The triumph of VE and VJ Days had turned into the dark alley of confusion that was the Korean War, while Joe McCarthy was scaring the living daylights out of homeland's sense of security. In Quicksand, it's not just be-bop jazz drifting out of the clubs and violently into the night air of the mid-century, it's America's sense of self searching for ways to satiate the appetite of the new religion of consumerism on an average guy's pay.
Mickey Rooney reins in his usual over-abundance of energy to good result in his portrayal of a hard-luck guy making wrong choice after wrong choice. When he finally explodes, his holding back pays off big time.
Casting Dark Shadodws
As Vera, James Cagney's little sister Jeanne has got mink on the brain and provides the film's key line, "It's not about what you run away to; it's what you run away from." Ms Cagney helps drive the story in an effortless quick turn from the seemingly hard-working, straight-laced cashier to the woman with a dark past and darker future. And she has ideas for Dan, all of them on the wrong side of morality. Ms Cagney's scenes with Peter Lorre (the arcade owning, oily skinned Nick) are concise examples of how the best film noir slip subtly around the restrictive movie code.
Watch for Jimmy Dodd, the head Mouseketeer and a very young Jack Elam, who became one of film noir most familiar faces. There's also a cameo by jazz great Red Nichols.
-- Ed Schneider
Cast & Production Credits
| Mickey Rooney | Dan Brady |
| Jeanne Cagney | Vera Novak |
| Barbara Bates | Helen |
| Peter Lorre | Nick Dramoshag |
| Taylor Holmes | Harvey |
| Art Smith | Mackey |
| Wally Cassell | Chuck |
| Minerva Urecal | Landlady |
| Patsy O'Connor | Millie |
| Richard Lane | Lt. Nelson |
| Jimmy Dodd | Buzz |
| John Gallaudet | Mortarity |
| Lester Dorr | Baldy |
| Ray Teal | Motorcycle Officer |
| Kitty O'Neil | Madame Zaronga |
| Alvin Hammer | Auditor |
| Frank Marlowe | Watchman |
| United Artists | |
| Irving Pichel | Director |
| Mort Briskin | Producer |
| Robert Smith | Screenwriter |
| Lionel Lindon | Cinematographer |
| Louis Gruenberg | Composer (Music Score) |
| Emil Newman | Musical Direction / Supervision / Art Director |
| Walter Thompson | Editor |
| Boris Leven | Production Designer |
For more information on Mickey Rooney and his changing image:
Baby Face Nelson (1957)
The Big Wheel (1949)
Killer McCoy (1947)
The Strip (1951)