JohnHowardReid Producer: Otto Preminger. Copyright 4 July 1950 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening the Roxy: 7 July 1950. U.S. release: July 1950. U.K. release: 18 September 1950. Australian release: 1 December 1950. 8,502 feet. 94 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A tough policeman with a reputation for beating confessions out of criminals, is sent to question a man suspected of murder. He becomes involved in a fight, and accidentally kills the man. The cop believes that a gang leader, Scalise, is responsible for the original crime, and that if he succeeds in concealing his own guilt he can secure Scalise's conviction for both murders. Unfortunately he meets and falls in love with the victim's widow.COMMENT: Preminger always stated in interviews that he remembered absolutely nothing about this movie. Certainly he doesn't even so much as mention it in his autobiography. That's a pity because there are two very interesting people involved with the production: Screenwriter Ben Hecht (under the pseudonym Rex Connor - though TV prints now credit Hecht in big letters); and dress designer Oleg Cassini (under the pseudonym Don Appel - get it, Don Apparel) who gives a remarkable performance as the spiv, Willie Bender. At the time, Cassini was married to star Gene Tierney.Producer/director Preminger liked unusual casting. He brought Clifton Webb back to the screen for Laura and he was later to introduce director John Huston in front of the cameras for The Cardinal, plus lawyer Joseph N. Welch in Anatomy of a Murder, unknown Jean Seberg in Saint Joan, politician John V. Lindsay in Rosebud.Yes, it's amazing Preminger remembers nothing about this movie. An obvious spin-off from Laura, it suffers from a typically limpid performance from Gene Tierney - who fortunately makes a late entrance, but then efficiently proceeds to slow down the pace which till then had been memorably brisk. Fortunately, Miss Tierney makes amends by lending her husband to the film, a bit of really inspired casting. Dana Andrews of course is as stiff as usual, but there's a great support cast of typically Hechtian characters (complete with sharp dialogue) who are vigorously brought to life. (Cassini incidentally has yet another role here - playing himself). Even more important than this fine array of character players, we have Gary Merrill giving the performance of his life as the smarmy gangster. Classily semi-documentary Fox in flavor and style with lots of location shooting in glossily low-key photography, and a cleverly integrated music score using Alfred Newman's famous "Street Scene", Where the Sidewalk Ends, despite its faults, is a definite must for the film noir connoisseur.

gordonl56 WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS – 1950 Director Otto Preminger reunites with Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in this top flight film noir. The two had starred in Preminger's noir classic, LAURA in 1944. Also returning to the group from the earlier film is the director of photography, Joseph LaShelle.Andrews plays a real hard case detective, who is not at all adverse to the laying on of hands during "interviews". This behaviour has him constantly in hot water with his bosses. Curb his temper or lose his job is the word.Andrews has a particular bee in his bonnet about slime-ball gambling racketeer, Gary Merrill. He can never seem to get enough goods on the man in-order to send him upstate.Anyways, Andrews ends up killing a suspect, Craig Stevens, to a stabbing at one of Merrill's crap games. He then covers up the crime and dumps the body in the drink. This course of action goes south when the body is discovered all too soon.Then there is a whole series of events that end up with the father of Andrew's ex-wife, Gene Tierney, being suspected of Stevens' murder. What is Andrews to do? Everything he tries seems to backfire. Does he come clean, or does he let the innocent man, Tom Tully, get charged.Director Preminger and cinematographer LaShelle are both on their game here, with an excellent series of night scenes. The endless parade of dark alleys, dank apartments and parking garages really stand out. The cast all shines with a cracker-jack performance by Andrews in particular.This is a real top notch exercise in how to make a film noir.

s-varian I only had an interest in watching this because of the title, it's also that poem book by SHel SIlverstein, and I love him. But i was pleasantly surprised at how much i actually liked this movie. Otto Preminger gives a superb example of just what a good film noir is all about. The main character is a rough cop who accidentally kills someone, and must cover up the tracks while still being a good guy and trying to win the heart of the widow of the man hes killed. It makes for a dramatic and interesting watch. The best little plot twist is that the wife's father is suspect number 1 in the murder of her husband, and the detective is trying to clear the innocent man while not getting in trouble himself. It's a pretty classic textbook film noir kinda of movie. My favorite part of this movie is just how calm and intelligent Dana Andrews pulls off playing the detective.

dougdoepke Oh my, the producers really deglamorized the luscious Tierney for this role. Not that her exquisite over-bite doesn't still shine through, it's just that her wardrobe doesn't exceed fifty bucks, everything included. She better be dressed down because here she's no upper-class babe like in Laura, {1944}. Instead, she's a struggling daughter of the working class, eating in cheap diners with her favorite leading man, Dana Andrews. He's a cop again, but even meaner and less imaginative than the mesmerized worshiper of Laura.This movie looks like a proletarian response to that poshly mounted earlier movie. It's still noir, but the lighting is more natural, in the style of later crime films. It's also a pretty grim film, even for thrillers. Just count the number of Mark's (Andrews) smiles; I stopped at zero. Then too, the unfriendly characters are pretty evenly divided between quarreling cops, on one hand, and hulking thugs, on the other. No wonder, Mark's sense of humor is lagging. It's a dour urban milieu the whole way, even if poor old ladies listen to Mozart on the radio.So what's Mark going to do now that he's accidentally killed a guy, dumped the body, and watched his sweetie Morgan's (Tierney) dad, of all people, take the rap. That's his moral dilemma, one he can maybe solve by pinning the crime on mob boss Scalise (Merrill, in an exotic performance). It better work because the luscious Morgan's the prize. Meanwhile, what's he going to do about the spectre of his father that portends a fateful end. Anyhow, in my little book, it's underrated noir the whole way. Except it's probably not good viewing if you've just gotten a tax bill from the feds.(In passing—for veteran TV viewers, it's odd seeing the suavely dapper Peter Gunn {Craig Stevens} playing a thug. It's sort of like seeing Cary Grant strong-arming a nun.)