Where The Sidewalk Ends Details

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