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Lack of good storyline.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Mechanic Mickey Rooney wants to take Jeanne Cagney out on a date, but he's broke and a buddy who owes him $20 won't pony up right away. So he borrows $20 from the garage's cash register and has some fun with Cagney. All is well, until the next day when his buddy's out on sea and the garage's accountant comes in a few days early... Rooney buys a watch on an installment plan and hocks it straight away to put the $20 back. Wrong move, as that is against the law. Either he pays for the watch the next day, or else... And that is only the start of Rooney's nightmare, where each bad choice he makes is followed by a worse one...Rooney ('The Strip', 'Drive A Crooked Road'), in one of his first more dramatic roles, does a good job here, aside from his schoolboy looks and his occasional voice-over narration which is spoken way too casual and doesn't fit the predicament he's in. Maybe he was still struggling to get out of his Andy Hardy straight-jacket? He gets great support tho from femme fatale Jeanne Cagney ('Don't Bother To Knock') whose only interest is an expensive mink coat she's been eyeing for some time. Peter Lorre ('The Maltese Falcon') plays a smaller, but important, part as the shady owner of a crummy arcade hall, where Cagney once worked. He is a treat to watch as usual.Competently directed by Irving Pichel ('They Won't Believe Me'), it's the story by Robert Smith ('Sudden Fear') and the great shadow-rich cinematography by Lionel Lindon ('The Manchurian Candidate') that firmly push this movie into noir territories, also helped by the majority of the movie taking place during night-time. The scenes inside Lorre's arcade especially are worth the price of admission. All in all, it's a good B-noir that pushes all the right buttons, except for those really awkward voice-overs...

Mickey Rooney plays an auto mechanic who meets a new cashier at the diner he eats his lunch at. She's a blond, while the girl who's in love with him is a brunette, so, given the state of aesthetics back then, there is no question but to go for the blond, which sets off a fairly overly concocted, but interestingly done, chain of events. Jeanne Cagney, as the blonde, comes with a dark background that's hinted at in the film, and a part of it we see with her connection to Peter Lorre who runs a shady looking arcade. As a later Lorre entry, his part is not at all bad, especially when he rather expertly wields a switchblade in one scene. Cagney has the right look for her part as the woman who first reels Rooney in and then encourages his criminal behavior. The title of this movie is apt though kind of melodramatic, as Rooney sinks deeper into crime in order to try to climb out of it.

Something very different for Mickey Rooney in this 1950 film. For just like in quicksand, once you enter, you go deeper and deeper. The surprise here was the ending since you would think it was all downhill for Rooney.Jeanne Cagney is the femme fatale here. She is quite a temptress who further drags Rooney down to near-murder. In the same year that she had a brief part in the Oscar winning "All About Eve," as Anne Baxter's pursuer from Erasmus Hall High School, Barbara Bates has a pretty meaty part here as the decent girl caught up in Rooney's downhill slide.The film is a perfect example of how doing one thing wrong just seems to spiral out of control.

OK. It's starting to make sense. The lead characters in these Noirs are losers, almost completely lacking in common sense. Whether it be Hary Lime (3rd Man), Al (Tom Neal) in "Detour" or this clown in "Quicksand". They make the dumbest moves imaginable.At nearly every turn, a simple willingness to do the right thing (at a relatively modest cost), or else the brains to just lay low, would save these guys a lot of trouble. So, just sit back and watch them devolve right before your very eyes.Quicksand was very enjoyable, though I did find myself starting to anticipate the next trap laid by the victim to his own detriment. Maybe that's idea in these kinds of films.Mickey Rooney was dandy. In spite of his blunders, he was still lovable and garnered my sympathy. This is one of those films where you don't really figure out the ending until it is over. Like, "Whoa! How did *that* all happen?"