Starring Mickey Rooney, a mechanic at Mackey Motors in Bay City, owned by the aging, sly, and morally corrupt Oren Mackey. One day Dan, who thinks of himself as a hot shot ladies man, meets Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney), a blond waitress with icy eyes who has gold-digger finger-painted all over her. Dan scarcely notices Helen (Barbara Bates), the nice girl who has fallen for him. Dan takes a 20-dollar bill from the cash register to pay for a big night out on a date with Vera. He intends to replace the money on his payday. Then the auditors show up and Dan has to find a way to get the money quick. Things escalate as Dan takes one thickheaded action after another, digging himself in deeper, leading to armed theft and phone-cord strangulation. All the while Vera is playing him like a cheap accordion while Helen just wants to help him. Along the way Peter Lorre, as the owner of a tawdry pinball parlor on Bay City's pier who knows Vera too well, wanders into the film, adds to Dan's woes, and wanders off. At one point Lorre, now noticeably heavy, and Rooney, looking like an overwrought Andy Hardy, get into a fight with fists and a knife that is...I'll be honest...pretty darn good. The fight is brief and darkly lit, but both actors look like they were trying. Lorre, in fact, gives the best performance in the movie as a man you do not want to do business with.
Region 0
DVD
