Irving Pichel's Quicksand (1950)

Quicksand is a low-budget film noir that was a transitional role for Mickey Rooney four years after his last Andy Hardy picture.  It was written by Robert Smith (who later wrote Phil Karlson's superb 99 River Street in 1953) photographed by veteran cinematographer Lionel Linden (who did The Blue Dahlia in 1946) and directed by Irving Pichel; the cynicism of Quicksand was undoubtedly fueled by Pichel's name coming up in the investigation of Hollywood by the House Committee on Un-American activities.

Rooney plays Dan Grady, an auto mechanic in California who falls for blonde Vera Novack, played by Jeanne Cagney (sister of James), a cashier in a greasy spoon.  When Dan realizes he doesn't have enough dough to take Vera out he quietly takes $20 from the garage cash register, planning to repay it when his friend Buzz gives him what he is owed.  But then the accountant shows up early and Dan has to get the money back in the till so he buys a watch for $100 on the installment plan and hocks it for $30.  Then an "investigator" (with the A.C. Doyle name of Moriarity) shows Dan the contract he signed and says he now owes the whole one hundred by the next day.  When Dan goes to drink away his cares he sees the drunken owner of a bingo game flashing his wad so he follows him and mugs him for the cash.  The crooked proprietor of Joyland, the local arcade, Nick (played by a very oily Peter Lorre, who shorts sailors a nickel when they ask for change) finds out about the crime, he says Dan has to steal a car for him or he will call the cops.  Dan steals the car from the garage where he works and then his boss Mackey (Art Smith) bluffs him into admitting it and tells him to come up with $3000 to pay for it.  E-Z Money won't give him the cash and Jack for Your Old Hack won't give him enough for his jalopy (which looks like something Andy Hardy would drive).  Vera says she knows where Nick keeps his money so Dan breaks in and steals Nick's stash, leaving the $3000 with Vera overnight.  When he goes back to Vera the next day she has already spent $1200 on a mink coat and when Dan asks her "what kind of a dame are you?" she replies "the kind that watches out for herself."  Dan then tries to get Mackey to accept $1800 and when he says yes and still calls the police Dan strangles him.  Dan leaves and meets his old girlfriend Helen and she, still madly in love with him, agrees to go to Mexico with him.  They stop a car and pull a gun on the driver and tell him to take them to Mexico. He turns out to be a lawyer and convinces them to turn around.  Dan is shot when he tries to board his friend Buzz's boat; he survives and the lawyer says he will defend him.

Generally I do not care for a happy ending in a film noir, but as the genre progressed into the fifties redemption became more possible as personal tragedy clashed with fate.  Dan and Vera had come to California to pursue the "American Dream" but had found only the squalor of boarding houses, garages and greasy spoons, where everyone seemed to be scamming in order not to be scammed themselves.  They were stuck at the end of the continent and had to start again at the beginning. Whether Dan can overcome his own weaknesses with the help of Helen is the question at the end of Quicksand.  What a tangled web we can weave.