Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Really Surprised!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Dana Andrews plays New York City police detective Mark Dixon. Dixon is in trouble with his superior because he beats up the hoods he encounters. The problem is Dixon's father was a hood himself and got the current big cheese in the underworld, Tommy Scalise (Gary Merrill), his start in crime. Mr. Merrill looks about as Italian as a Cro-Magnon man, in fact he actually resembles Cro-Magnon man, but that's another story. So Dixon really sees his much hated but long departed dad in all of these rats he collars, thus the attitude. Dixon's superior says one more complaint about his rough stuff and he's off the force.Then a murder at a private game set up by Scalise to take an out of town hayseed. You see, the hayseed started winning - 19K to be exact - and then wanted to leave. Scalise and his mob disagreed.When Dixon and his partner get the call, the rich Texan is lying dead with a knife in his heart, Scalise says he was losing not winning when he died, and the guy (Craig Stevens as Ken Payne) who got into a fight with him over a girl (Gene Tierney as Morgan Taylor) is long gone, as well as the girl. Dixon and his partner split up, with Dixon going to Ken's place to see what he has to say.Now apparently all Ken did - and all the audience saw - was Ken knock the Texan cold. Ken has no idea that he has been set up to take the fall for a murder. So when Dixon shows up at Ken's place a fight breaks out when Dixon tries to arrest him. Ken throws a punch at Dixon, Dixon hit back, and Ken lands on the floor dead. Then a phone call from Dixon's partner. When asked if he found Ken, Dixon says no. The partner warns him not to get rough with the guy because, besides being a first class scum bag, he was a war hero and has a steel plate in his head due to war wounds. Thus the one punch death.Nobody is going to believe the truth given his reputation, so Dixon has to come up with a clever plan to get rid of the body and make the timeline look like he could never have been the killer. He succeeds too well. Then he begins to fall for Ken's widow, Morgan. And Dixon did a very good job of throwing suspicion off, because it lands on Morgan's dad who is booked for Ken's murder once the body is found. So Dixon has the possibility of making the woman he loves both a widow and an orphan. How can he make this right and get to keep Morgan, or can he? Watch and find out.Andrews' acting is subtle, mainly all facial expressions, since he can't talk out the dilemma he is in with anybody. The entire cast is superb. You've even got Karl Malden in a minor role as the new supervisor of detectives, and Tom Tully as Jiggs Taylor, Morgan's cab driving dad whose loud voice and big stories help get him into the legal jam he finds himself. That mousy little petty criminal who manages to have a small part all through the film that you've seen a hundred times in similar roles? Wrong. That was Don Appell in his only screen appearance. Finally there is Ruth Donnelly adding some great atmosphere as the hash slinging mom figure to Dixon. The only characterization that made me go "huh?" was Gene Tierney playing the daughter of a cab driver like she is a Park Avenue debutante.I'd give it a nine if not for the ending. Darn that production code. Watch and find out what I mean.

Otto Preminger directed this film noir that stars Dana Andrews as detective Mark Dixon, recently demoted for roughing up too many suspects. He is determined to take down gangster Tommy Scalise(played by Gary Merrill) but instead knocks out another suspect, inadvertently killing him. Dixon then covers up the crime, but in the ensuing investigation, finds himself falling for the man's widow Morgan(played by Gene Tierney) whose father ends up charged with the crime he committed. How can he clear him, court her, take down Scalise, and escape punishment himself? Involved thriller works well, with fine acting and compelling story, effectively re-teaming Andrews and Tierney.

I'm in the minority but this is a turgid noir entry. Andrews is so deadpan he's boring. Dialogue is borderline comical. Tierney's role is thankless & wasted. Lightning & street scenes are good but they can't compensate for how pretentious this film becomes. Special nod to a very young Neville Brand.The script is so far-fetched it leaves you incredulous. Cops did not converse in this manner. Who did? Karl Malden does the best he can with crass material. Curio film to see Gary Merrill too. Who soon married Bette Davis after working with her in All About Eve.No spoiler alert here but simply a summary to say this is a very odd film. I'm a fan of noir but there are so many better options than WTSE. In fact, I couldn't wait for this film to end.

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.)