Dana Andrews stars as brutal cop Mark Dixon who previously had been in trouble with his superiors for his brutal methods. When Dixon accidently kills a murder suspect he knows his career will be over if he is discovered. He decides to dispose of the body and pin the murder on someone else. However events get murkier when he .. Read more
| Starring | Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed |
|---|---|
| Director | Otto Preminger |
| Genres | Drama |
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Dana Andrews stars as brutal cop Mark Dixon who previously had been in trouble with his superiors for his brutal methods. When Dixon accidently kills a murder suspect he knows his career will be over if he is discovered. He decides to dispose of the body and pin the murder on someone else. However events get murkier when he falls for the dead man's wife and her father becomes the prime suspect for the murder. Dixon only finds redemption when he pays the ultimate price.
| Starring | Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed |
|---|---|
| Director | Otto Preminger |
| Studio | BFI VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 31 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Released | DVD: 29 Mar 2004 Production year: 1950 |
| Format | DVD |
This superb, moody example of 20th Century-Fox film noir is a clearly plotted thriller, which creates a nightmare world of guilt and corruption, and is impeccably directed by the great Otto Preminger. Brutal cop Dana Andrews tries to hide the callous fact that, while searching for a murderer, he himself has killed Craig Stevens. The beautiful Gene Tierney is excellent in an enigmatic role as Stevens's estranged wife — a part that manages to keep her acting limitations well concealed — and watch for Neville Brand's particularly chilling portrayal of a homosexual criminal in some censor-circumventing scenes well ahead of their time. Journalist Ben Hecht had a hand in the brilliant screenplay (there's a lot of dialogue for this type of movie), an adaptation of William L Stuart's Night Cry. Movie buffs and fashion aficionados should keep an eye out for a cameo from Tierney's then-husband Oleg Cassini, who designed the movie's costumes with Charles LeMaire.
A weatherbeaten Andrews gives one of his finest performances as Detective Mark Dixon, a belligerent cop whose father... read more on Time Out
A terrific noir thriller reuniting the director and stars of Laura; Otto Preminger, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. In Laura, Preminger dealt with New York's corrupt upper class and in Where The Sidewalk Ends he takes us down its mean streets with hardboiled dialogue written by Ben Hecht. Mark Dixon (Andrews) is a brutal cop who accidentally kills a murder suspect and sets about an elaborate plan to implicate the mobster Scalise (Gary Merrill) but instead an innocent taxi driver is arrested. Superb performances (including an early role for Karl Malden as an ambitious police inspector) and atmospheric photography by Joseph LaShelle. Recommended.
No femme fatale but otherwise all the classic ingredients of film noir. The story has twists and turns and gives the anti-hero a series of physical and moral dilemmas. The excellent dialogue is still strong and should be shown as a lesson to many of todays crop of writers. Worth watching without being essential.