Quicksand (1950)

Posted by Curt

I first watched this movie over sixteen years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I mainly liked this film because it was a fast moving, hard-nosed crime drama that showed how a plain, ordinary man could get into a world of trouble by getting hitched up with the wrong kind of woman.

Barbara Bates, a young attractive woman who had the hots for Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) was given the brush off by him because he found Vera (Jeanne Cagney) to be more exciting and sexually interesting than this former girlfriend of his. Since Vera was used to a high style of living, Dan had to take her out to a swanky nightclub but he needed the cash right now to do this. Living from paycheck to paycheck being the garage mechanic he was, he didn't have enough money on him so he came up with the bright idea to "borrow" twenty bucks from the till where he worked at. And that's where his rapid slide down the abyss began.

The auditor came early to the garage to count up the week's receipts, and found twenty dollars missing which sent Dan Brady scrambling to find the money to put back into the register so that the books would balance. His next step was to go out and purchase a watch on credit and then sell it to a pawnbroker. From there he put the cash back in the till and everything was fine. Not really. The jewelery place checked up on him and found he couldn't pay back the $100 for the watch, and pressure was put on Dan Brady to pay up or go to jail. His next step was to go after Shorty, the owner of the local bingo parlour and rob him of his cash. He then used the loot from the robbery to pay off Jay's Jeweler"s and get himself out of hot water for the time being.

Meanwhile, he was making time with Vera and they started hanging around this pinball-carnival joint which was operated by the very shady Peter Lorre. Vera had had a relationship at one time with Peter, but after that cooled she went on to greener pastures, none other than the easy going Dan Brady. Well, while at the pinball joint, Mickey and Peter got into a tussel over 50 bucks Vera owed Peter. Being the simple minded person he was, Mickey threw 50 dollars in his face and the hankerchief he used during the robbery. Peter spotted the fifty dollar bill and knew that the only person around who carried fifties on him was Shorty. So, Peter put two and two together and put the old squeeze on Mickey to heist an automobile from the garage where he worked, and if he turned over the auto to Peter, then Peter would keep mum about the robbery. What with one crime leading to another and then ending up with Mickey breaking into Peter's safe to pay off the garage owner for the stolen car or be turned over to the cops, well, it looked like there was no way out of this hole that he had dug for himself. Then, when Vera took part of the robbery money from Peter's safe, and spent it on a mink coat for herself, if left Mickey on the short end of the stick. When he couldn't give the full amount to the owner, his boss decided to turn him into the cops and then Mickey went after him and choked him. After that happened, he broke off with Vera and hooked up with his old girlfriend for a quick exit out of town. The cops did catch up with him and after a shoot-out in which he was wounded, he found out the garage owner didn't die and that maybe he would only spend a year or so in jail. His girl said she would wait for him which made for a happy ending. This is what I call a stream-of-consciousness summary.

This was not an outstanding noir film but I think it was up to the mark in delivering the goods. As I understand it, beginning with Quicksand, this was supposed to be the start of a multi-picture collaboration between Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre, which would indeed made for one of the most unusual business partnerships in the history of Hollywood. But, as it turned out, this was the only film they made together.