IMDb > Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   1,719 votes
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Director:
Otto Preminger
Writers:
Ben Hecht (screenplay)
Victor Trivas (adaptation) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Where the Sidewalk Ends on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 July 1950 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Film-Noir | Drama more
Plot:
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon wants to be something his old man wasn't: a guy on the right side of the law. But Dixon's vicious nature will get the better of him. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
First rate film noir; make that a superb movie. more (49 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Dana Andrews ... Det. Mark Dixon

Gene Tierney ... Morgan Taylor
Gary Merrill ... Tommy Scalise
Bert Freed ... Det. Paul Klein
Tom Tully ... Jiggs Taylor

Karl Malden ... Lt. Thomas
Ruth Donnelly ... Martha
Craig Stevens ... Ken Paine
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
95 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Germany:12 | UK:12 | USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #14458) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA more
Company:
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Not only was the traditional Twentieth Century Fox fanfare music not utilized at the film's opening, Alfred Newman's ubiquitous "Street Scene Theme" is whistled over the unique opening credits, appropriately written in chalk on a sidewalk. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Andrews is staging the murder scene after Stevens' death, he is gloveless. A few seconds later he suddenly has gloves on both hands. more
Quotes:
Martha, Owner of Martha's Cafe: You know, I like places like this that specialize in good food instead of headwaiters.
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: It's the worst food in town, but don't worry. They usually serve a stomach pump with the dessert.
Martha, Owner of Martha's Cafe: Who invited you to come to my restaurant, Mr. Detective? Not me!
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Martha's the head of a ring of burglars. My presence makes her nervous.
Martha, Owner of Martha's Cafe: Yeah, last night we got a whole basketful of diamonds. You wanna see?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Bring us two of your dangerous dinners, Martha.
Martha, Owner of Martha's Cafe: You know how much I've been offered to poison this man?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Ten dollars.
Martha, Owner of Martha's Cafe: That's right. I'm holding out for fifteen. Two dinners. Do you want wine?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Bring a small bottle.
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) more

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User Comments

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23 out of 28 people found the following comment useful.
First rate film noir; make that a superb movie., 6 June 2001
8/10
Author: David Cavallo (dcavallo@nyc.rr.com) from New York, NY

Elegance and class are not always the first words that come to mind when folks (at least folks who might do such a thing) sit around and talk about film noir.

Yet some of the best films of the genre, "Out of the Past," "The Killers," "In A Lonely Place," "Night and the City," manage a level of sleek sophistication that elevates them beyond a moody catch phrase and its connotations of foreboding shadows, fedoras, and femme-fatales.

"Where the Sidewalk Ends," a fairly difficult to find film -- the only copy in perhaps the best stocked video store in Manhattan was a rough bootleg from the AMC cable channel -- belongs in a category with these classics.

From the moment the black cloud of opening credits pass, a curtain is drawing around rogue loner detective Marc Dixon's crumbling world, and as the moments pass, it inches ever closer, threatening suffocation.

Sure, he's that familiar "cop with a dark past", but Dana Andrews gives Dixon a bleak stare and troubled intensity that makes you as uncomfortable as he seems. And yeah, he's been smacking around suspects for too long, and the newly promoted chief (Karl Malden, in a typically robust and commanding outing) is warning him "for the last time."

Yet Dixon hates these thugs too much to stop now. And boy didn't they had have it coming?

"Hoods, dusters, mugs, gutter nickel-rats" he spits when that tough nut of a boss demotes him and rolls out all of the complaints the bureau has been receiving about Dixon's right hook. The advice is for him to cool off for his own good. But instead he takes matters into his own hands.

And what a world of trouble he finds when he relies on his instincts, and falls back on a nature that may or may not have been passed down from a generation before.

Right away he's in deep with the cops, the syndicate, his own partner. Dixon's questionable involvement in a murder "investigation" threatens his job, makes him wonder whether he is simply as base as those he has sworn to bring in. Like Bogart in "Lonely Place," can he "escape what he is?"

When he has nowhere else to turn, he discovers that he has virtually doomed his unexpected relationship with a seraphic beauty (the marvelous Gene Tierney) who seems as if she can turn his barren bachelor's existence into something worth coming home to.

The pacing of this superb film is taut and gripping. The group of writers that contributed to the production polished the script to a high gloss -- the dialogue is snappy without disintegrating into dated parody fodder, passionate without becoming melodramatic or sappy.

And all of this top-notch direction and acting isn't too slick or buffed to loosen the film's emotional hold. Gene Tierney's angelic, soft-focus beauty is used to great effect. She shows herself to be an actress of considerable range, and her gentle, kind nature is as boundless here as is her psychosis in "Leave Her to Heaven." The scenes between Tierney and Andrews's Dixon grow more intense and touching the closer he seems to self-destruction.

Near the end of his rope, cut, bruised, and exhausted Dixon summarizes his lot: "Innocent people can get into terrible jams, too,.." he says. "One false move and you're in over your head."

Perhaps what makes this film so totally compelling is the sense that things could go wildly wrong for almost anyone -- especially for someone who is trying so hard to do right -- with one slight shift in the wind, one wrong decision or punch, or, most frighteningly, due to factors you have no control over. Noir has always reflected the darkest fears, brought them to the surface. "Where the Sidewalk Ends" does so in a realistic fashion.

(One nit-pick of an aside: This otherwise sterling film has a glaringly poor dub of a blonde model that wouldn't seem out of place on Mystery Science Theater. How very odd.)

But Noir fans -- heck, ANY movie fans -- who haven't seen this one are in for a terrific treat.

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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
A cameo role before he was famous? gemolby
What is Scalise sniffing throughout the movie? kida0477
Liked the ending... habler6
Best noir movie I've watched in a long time madafaka
Dana Andrews was not a B movie actor johnggriff
nothing downbeat83
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