Quicksand (1950)
First off--watch this one. It's not great by any means, but it's different and weirdly fresh even now. Maybe it's Mickey Rooney who most of all gives it its fast clip and keeps it alive. And it's a film noir for young people, and so it never gets truly disturbing or hard. You forget how "mature" a normal film noir is. The regular folks who make up the supporting cast, even the so-called femme-fatale played by Jeanne Cagney (sister of pre-noir gangster actor, James), keep a lightweight charm in even the harshest of events.
The plot, suggested by the title, unfolds from that most basic of problems--boy wants girl. And twenty bucks. It descends with such calculated steps in an almost comi-tragic spiral it becomes a moral lesson. And with Rooney as the most unlikely noirish lead man, in a cheerful California seaside town, shot mostly in bright daylight, you have something that is tragic and chipper at the same time. It feels like a B movie, and unfolds like one, and resonates very little. In overall tone, it reminds me of early television, which somehow, often, seems glib or superficial or intent on entertaining regardless of the themes.
But this is 1950, and the style and mood come from some other combination of factors-- direction, light, and Rooney, in that order. The best part of the film, in a way, is the most authentic and dark, and seems slightly out of place--Peter Lorre as a loser shyster running an arcade. It feels like his last film, but he has another twenty after this, many with marginal roles for a marginalized man.
Quicksand? A very nice surprise.
First off--watch this one. It's not great by any means, but it's different and weirdly fresh even now. Maybe it's Mickey Rooney who most of all gives it its fast clip and keeps it alive. And it's a film noir for young people, and so it never gets truly disturbing or hard. You forget how "mature" a normal film noir is. The regular folks who make up the supporting cast, even the so-called femme-fatale played by Jeanne Cagney (sister of pre-noir gangster actor, James), keep a lightweight charm in even the harshest of events.
The plot, suggested by the title, unfolds from that most basic of problems--boy wants girl. And twenty bucks. It descends with such calculated steps in an almost comi-tragic spiral it becomes a moral lesson. And with Rooney as the most unlikely noirish lead man, in a cheerful California seaside town, shot mostly in bright daylight, you have something that is tragic and chipper at the same time. It feels like a B movie, and unfolds like one, and resonates very little. In overall tone, it reminds me of early television, which somehow, often, seems glib or superficial or intent on entertaining regardless of the themes.
But this is 1950, and the style and mood come from some other combination of factors-- direction, light, and Rooney, in that order. The best part of the film, in a way, is the most authentic and dark, and seems slightly out of place--Peter Lorre as a loser shyster running an arcade. It feels like his last film, but he has another twenty after this, many with marginal roles for a marginalized man.
Quicksand? A very nice surprise.