Quicksand is the kind of melodramatic noir film if Dostoevsky had gotten a contract from a Hollywood studio this is the kind of stuff he'd give us. It's got that kind of feel to it.
This independent United Artists release is also a bit of throwback to the Warner Brothers working class films of the Thirties. If it had been made in the Thirties I can see James Cagney playing the role Mickey Rooney does here. It was nice to finally not see Rooney playing a kid, I'm sure that's one reason Mickey took the role.
And he does well by it as a garage mechanic who works for a really miserly and mean boss played by Art Smith who could have given the pre-visitation Scrooge a lesson in thrift. Mickey's keeping company with good girl Barbara Bates, but one night cashier Jeanne Cagney, Jim's little sister gives him the eye and the Mick's hormones take over. He borrows $20.00 from the till and will replace it on pay day, but the bookkeeper comes early.
That starts a spiral of events that bring Mickey into some very deep trouble. It's like Quicksand, the more he tries another scheme to get out of it, the fates just drag him in deeper.
Acting honors in this very film belong to Jeanne Cagney. I'm surprised this film did not lead to a whole host of parts like these that in the Fifties, Marie Windsor made a specialty of. That is one hard hearted ice princess.
Peter Lorre is on hand to supply his own special brand of patented menace. Lorre plays the owner of a shooting gallery in a penny arcade and he's Jeanne's former boss. He too has a thing for Ms. Cagney and she's not above putting Lorre's hormones into overdrive either.
Quicksand was made on the cheap, but it's got a nice cast and it's tightly directed by Irving Pichel without a minute of wasted film footage. Hopefully it will be broadcast by TCM one day.
This independent United Artists release is also a bit of throwback to the Warner Brothers working class films of the Thirties. If it had been made in the Thirties I can see James Cagney playing the role Mickey Rooney does here. It was nice to finally not see Rooney playing a kid, I'm sure that's one reason Mickey took the role.
And he does well by it as a garage mechanic who works for a really miserly and mean boss played by Art Smith who could have given the pre-visitation Scrooge a lesson in thrift. Mickey's keeping company with good girl Barbara Bates, but one night cashier Jeanne Cagney, Jim's little sister gives him the eye and the Mick's hormones take over. He borrows $20.00 from the till and will replace it on pay day, but the bookkeeper comes early.
That starts a spiral of events that bring Mickey into some very deep trouble. It's like Quicksand, the more he tries another scheme to get out of it, the fates just drag him in deeper.
Acting honors in this very film belong to Jeanne Cagney. I'm surprised this film did not lead to a whole host of parts like these that in the Fifties, Marie Windsor made a specialty of. That is one hard hearted ice princess.
Peter Lorre is on hand to supply his own special brand of patented menace. Lorre plays the owner of a shooting gallery in a penny arcade and he's Jeanne's former boss. He too has a thing for Ms. Cagney and she's not above putting Lorre's hormones into overdrive either.
Quicksand was made on the cheap, but it's got a nice cast and it's tightly directed by Irving Pichel without a minute of wasted film footage. Hopefully it will be broadcast by TCM one day.