jarrodmcdonald-1
Quicksand contains a few winning elements, but for the most part it is extremely contrived and unintentionally funny. And some of the film just doesn't make sense at all. The scene where Mickey Rooney is on top of the desk throttling the car salesman is where it is most absurd. How can you root for him? He's too stupid to garner any respect or empathy from the audience. You instead root for Jeanne Cagney's pathetic femme fatale because she at least has more intelligence. And what about the part where Rooney tells a brunette girl that he killed someone and she doesn't even seem bothered by it. Instead, she wants to hop in the car and go to Mexico with him. This is even more ridiculous than the murder scene. Peter Lorre is the only good thing in this sad attempt at a film. He plays a slimy arcade owner and seems to be a substantial part of the story in the beginning. But then, he just disappears half-way through the movie. The biggest problem with Quicksand is that they played it straight, when it should have been done for laughs. If it was a black comedy with a wink at the impossibility of the situations the main character was embroiled in, then that may have worked. But for an audience to take this plot seriously means the filmmakers were expecting too much and were not even half as smart as the cardboard characters they created.
Byron Holmes
I'm not sure why MST3K never caught this on the radar; it's the type of movie that would be vastly improved by a riff.Everything that was wrong with the Hays Code is shown here: a forgettable plot, pointless exposition, a slight embezzlement unrealistically leading to attempted murder, protagonists with the personality of concrete, and mediocre writing.For what it's worth, though, Mickey Rooney does at least TRY in this movie, even though it doesn't save the film.Bottom line, get some of your friends together and tear this film apart; you'll have more fun that way.
Cristi_Ciopron
Not only is the delightful blonde Jeanne my favorite from the Cagney family, but QUICKSAND registers as an admirably made thriller, and your surprise at discovering this movie's awesome quality will be simultaneous with the one given by an exquisite cast—Rooney, Mrs. Cagney and Lorre who gives here one of his most accomplished roles. And one characteristic of this flick is that, by its gusto and atmosphere, it makes Lorre's performance look neat and appropriate. Built like a folk tale, QUICKSAND has the symbolic topography required. Part of the disconcerting atmosphere are also the scenes with short actors—e.g., those where Lorre, Rooney and Mrs. Cagney are together in the frame. In fact, she looked taller than Rooney.Jeanne Cagney plays a mean woman, and Rooney is shown as symbolically disputed by two opposed women; in fact, almost everything seems, in this folk tale, naively symbolical. The events are symbolical; the topography, as noted, the surroundings, the sets, the hall of games, the net of streets where people get lost, are seen, find each other. And the tale is handled with a secret joy, a secret enjoyment.Rooney's performance is particularly good, served by his air of a naughty adolescent. It also gives the movie that suggestion of marveled realism. Like in the folk—tales, the impression is that of plausible facts given as a morality.Lorre's role doesn't suggest the cliché, nor a stock character, but an energetic brio in making a meaningful character from just a few traits; and from here it is that Lorre can show what a master he was.Peculiar, I would add, to this extremely peculiar noir movie is its freshness and its sense of excitement; as a noir, it looks masterful. I could add only a handful of _noirs this good.QUICKSAND is characterized by freshness, brio, genuine excitement, neatness in execution and admirable clarity, a marvelous handling of a simple tale, and an almost unmatched atmosphere, a peculiar sense of the atmosphere, which boosts the choice cast's performances. It nicely sums some of the traits that are defining for the American cinema. Eddie Muller, a terrific noir connoisseur, is a bit wrong not including QUICKSAND in his list of the 25 best _noirs.A word about Jeanne Cagney—this blonde, a bit meaty, streetwise, ironic, had the artistic brio of her family; she was given such popular roles as a woman of energy and strength. And if her career was somewhat discreet, it was also fairly mentionable. She was 31 yrs in QUICKSAND. From 20 yrs to 46 she has been in the movies, gracing them with her maybe unglamorous but electrifying appeal and genuine beauty. QUICKSAND is perhaps her most noted movie and role.A lot of plain rubbish is hailed nowadays as noir classics; QUICKSAND deserves, by its admirable qualities of style, directing, atmosphere, pace, cast, performances, charm, sense of storytelling, a place in any top 10. And Jeanne Cagney was hot.
