Mickey Rooney
Dan
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Synopsis
A young mechanic takes twenty dollars from his employer's till, expecting to replace it before anyone notices. Paying the money back proves harder than taking it. One hurried solution creates another debt, and a date with a glamorous waitress draws him into blackmail, theft and a narrowing circle of bad choices.
Cast
DirectorsIrving Pichel
Behind the scenes
Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre helped finance the film, which used Santa Monica locations and the city's pier. Rooney's anxious, compromised mechanic gave him a darker role than the youthful characters associated with his MGM career. Cornetist Red Nichols and his band also appear in a nightclub sequence.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 10, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- Mickey Rooney — Studio publicity still · Public domain
- Jeanne Cagney — New York Sunday News · Public domain
- Barbara Bates — film screenshot (United Artists) · Public domain
- Peter Lorre — Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
