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| Title: QUICKSAND Cast: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Peter Lorre Year: 1950 Rates: **** |
An epitomizing trait of film noir is... if you take a short cut you'll get in lots more trouble than you started out with, and for that QUICKSAND completely epitomizes noir cinema when a young and cocky, girl-loving mechanic played by Mickey Rooney finds the girl of his... immediate dreams...
And quickly winds up landing a date with this sexy blonde waitress Jeanne Cagney as Vera... but back at the garage he realizes two things: not only does he have no money, but his cohorts... including both workmates and those on the phone who owe him... are all equally broke...
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| Peter Lorre as Nick in QUICKSAND |
From that point QUICKSAND goes in and out of the frying pan into the fire in a string of adventurous misadventures leading Rooney into crimes and misdemeanors from swiping cash from a register to getting a bogus loan to rolling a rich drunk to knocking off local criminal kingpin Peter Lorre's arcade...
And as usual, the bad girl has a connection with the villain since Jeanne Cagney had worked for Lorre... But the shady CASABLANCA icon has very little screen-time, and isn't much of a threat compared to Rooney's original fear of simply looking cheap for his date... which got all the trouble started...
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jeanne Cagney |
Then there's the good girl... who finally becomes important when the bad girl turns the inevitable table: Enter the cute and equally pathetic love-struck Barbara Bates, who helps Rooney when he's on the run from the law moving in...
All during an action-packed finale that pales to the more intriguing bulwarks leading up as Rooney, turning in a natural performance of cool spontaneity (one of those scripted roles seeming improvised), takes himself and the audience on an endless ride... but the real scene-stealer is femme-fatale light Jeanne Cagney, sister of James Cagney: the only time in a sparse career she can wield big brother's prowess and energy.
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Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jeanne Cagney |
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Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jeanne Cagney and Peter Lorre
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND |
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Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jack Elam
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jeanne Cagney |
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND |
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Jeanne Cagney |
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Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with good girl Barbara Bates
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| Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND with Barbara Bates |
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