***SPOILERS*** After a phenomenal career as a child and teenage star in a number of top grossing films that made him one of the biggest draws in Hollywood by the end of WWII Mickey Rooney was too old to play teenagers and had to make it as a grown up in the movies. In the movie "Quicksand" Mickey Rooney not only plays a grown up but a bad guy as well.Only in that he was only guilty by reasons of circumstances.
Picking up blond bombshell Vera, Jeanne Cagney, who was a cashier at the diner that Dan Brady, Mickey Rooney, was with his co-workers having a snack Dan gets into a load of trouble that started with him stealing $20.00 from the till at his job as a car mechanic to take Vera out on a date. That later leads to him mugging bingo game owner Shorty, Sidney Marion, of his profits then getting blackmailed by Vera's former boss arcade owner Nick, Peter Lorre. Who had evidence that Dan mugged Shorty which leads Dan to steal a new car from his job and give it to have Nickh keep his mouth shut.
Dan later is caught by his boss Mr. Mackey, Art Smith, when he suckered him into admitting that he stole the new car by telling him that he knew that he did it, which he didn't. Which Mackey told everyone else at the job and only guilt-ridden Dan was dumb and guilty enough to fall for Mackey's trick and say that he in fact did. With Vera's help Dan breaks into Nick's office and steals $3,600.00 from his weekly take only to have Vera spend half of it on a mink coat. This when he needed $3,000.00 to pay Mackey off to have him not report him to the police. Coming up with the remaining $1,800.00 wasn't enough for Mackey and as he was about to call the police on Dan he attacked him and knocked him out but thought that he murdered him. Going back to Vera's place Dan sees the cops there and hides on the fire escape only to hear that Vera is about to sell him out to save her neck.
Running into his true blue girlfriend Helen, Barbara Bates, Dan then gets her into a heap of trouble by having Helen help him carjack a motorist so that they can both drive across the border into Mexico. It's then that Dan & Helen find out that their kidnap victim is a lawyer who tells Dan that he can be charged with a capital crime for what he just did by kidnapping him. Even though Dan at the time thought that he'll hang for killing Mr. Mackey who unknowing to him survived. It' then that Dan's kidnap victim offers to help both him and Helen if he lets him go free which Dan does at the end of the movie. It's just then that Dan gets into a shootout with the police at the shipyard as he tries to escape by sea and is shot and captured. Helen ends up getting off the hook and Dan is told by his new found friend, the former kidnapped lawyer, that he can get no more then one year behind bars tops in the can since he's a first-time offender. Being the lovable Mickey Rooney in real life didn't hurt Dan's chances either. Now thats really being an adult in the movies.
"Quicksand" is one of Mickey Rooney's best adult movies and it would have been much better if only the ending wasn't so contrived and unbelievable by having Dan get off practically scott free. After committing a string of crimes that would have put anyone else, if they weren't adorable Mickey Rooney, away for life if not on death row. I almost expected at the end of the film for Mickey and his girlfriend as well as his lawyer friend to break out in some song and dance act with the entire cast in the movie, including a number of chorus girls, joining in.
Picking up blond bombshell Vera, Jeanne Cagney, who was a cashier at the diner that Dan Brady, Mickey Rooney, was with his co-workers having a snack Dan gets into a load of trouble that started with him stealing $20.00 from the till at his job as a car mechanic to take Vera out on a date. That later leads to him mugging bingo game owner Shorty, Sidney Marion, of his profits then getting blackmailed by Vera's former boss arcade owner Nick, Peter Lorre. Who had evidence that Dan mugged Shorty which leads Dan to steal a new car from his job and give it to have Nickh keep his mouth shut.
Dan later is caught by his boss Mr. Mackey, Art Smith, when he suckered him into admitting that he stole the new car by telling him that he knew that he did it, which he didn't. Which Mackey told everyone else at the job and only guilt-ridden Dan was dumb and guilty enough to fall for Mackey's trick and say that he in fact did. With Vera's help Dan breaks into Nick's office and steals $3,600.00 from his weekly take only to have Vera spend half of it on a mink coat. This when he needed $3,000.00 to pay Mackey off to have him not report him to the police. Coming up with the remaining $1,800.00 wasn't enough for Mackey and as he was about to call the police on Dan he attacked him and knocked him out but thought that he murdered him. Going back to Vera's place Dan sees the cops there and hides on the fire escape only to hear that Vera is about to sell him out to save her neck.
Running into his true blue girlfriend Helen, Barbara Bates, Dan then gets her into a heap of trouble by having Helen help him carjack a motorist so that they can both drive across the border into Mexico. It's then that Dan & Helen find out that their kidnap victim is a lawyer who tells Dan that he can be charged with a capital crime for what he just did by kidnapping him. Even though Dan at the time thought that he'll hang for killing Mr. Mackey who unknowing to him survived. It' then that Dan's kidnap victim offers to help both him and Helen if he lets him go free which Dan does at the end of the movie. It's just then that Dan gets into a shootout with the police at the shipyard as he tries to escape by sea and is shot and captured. Helen ends up getting off the hook and Dan is told by his new found friend, the former kidnapped lawyer, that he can get no more then one year behind bars tops in the can since he's a first-time offender. Being the lovable Mickey Rooney in real life didn't hurt Dan's chances either. Now thats really being an adult in the movies.
"Quicksand" is one of Mickey Rooney's best adult movies and it would have been much better if only the ending wasn't so contrived and unbelievable by having Dan get off practically scott free. After committing a string of crimes that would have put anyone else, if they weren't adorable Mickey Rooney, away for life if not on death row. I almost expected at the end of the film for Mickey and his girlfriend as well as his lawyer friend to break out in some song and dance act with the entire cast in the movie, including a number of chorus girls, joining in.