Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox Film Noir)
by Otto Preminger
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DVD details
Actor: Bert Freed, Dana Andrews, Gary Merrill, Gene Tierney, Tom TullyDirector: Otto Preminger
Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
Producer: Otto Preminger
Producer: Frank P. Rosenberg
Writer: Frank P. Rosenberg
Writer: Ben Hecht
Writer: Robert E. Kent
Writer: Victor Trivas
Writer: William L. Stuart
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox Film Noir)
DVD Review: Powerful, tough Preminger noir with great Dana Andrews performance
Summary: 5 Stars
Dana Andrews is one of those actors that I've probably seen in a dozen films, but who took a long time to register for me. Often stolid, taciturn, playing the same kinds of roles and looking somewhat like the similarly underrated Glenn Ford, he's an actor that takes some effort to really appreciate; but once you hit the right film....
And this was it. Preminger's moody look at New York's underbelly is as dirty and seedy as just about any 50s noir, and Andrews is in his element as too-tough cop Mark Dixon who just doesn't know how to play the game to get ahead: he hates criminals too much to always play by the rules. Early on in the film, he accidentally kills the witness to a murder involving an illegal crap game set up by a mobster who Dixon hates for personal reasons, and he spends the rest of the film trying to cover up his involvement and bring the mobster to his kind of "justice". Along the way he gets involved with the estranged wife of the man he killed (Gene Tierney) and also has to try to get her father off the hook for the murder.
Stunningly photographed by Joseph LaShelle - the parking garage scenes in particular have both an alluring beauty and a realism that was rare at the time - with hard and sparkling dialogue by Ben Hecht and a truly powerful ending with elements of tragedy and found grace in just a minute or two of time, this is another noir for the ages and is probably my favorite Preminger film next to DAISY KENYON -- it's every bit as good and certainly less predictable than the more-heralded LAURA.
DVD Review: WONDERFUL FILM NOIR FALLS JUST SHORT OF CLASSIC STATUS
Summary: 4 Stars
Really enjoyed this wonderfully atmospheric noir. Great New York black &
white shots, a sharp, smart even sensitive script, great characters and, best of all, everybody getting slapped around mercilessly including diva Tierney. Dana Andrews, who at first appeared miscast, was outstanding as the grizzled no-nonsense veteran cop who accidentally kills while trying to find a killer. Everybody in this was simply at the top of their game-- probably a result of Otto Preminger's direction. Bert Freed, one of those "I've seen him before" character actors, was excellent as Andrews' cop partner. Gary Merrill, another familiar face, gave the performance of his career as the prime suspect. Karl Malden, in an early career role, was in his usual fine form as Andrews' annoyingly 'know-it-all' new boss. And ANY movie with Neville Brand has gotta be good! 'The old lady in the cafe' & 'the old lady at the window' were two fine characterizations. And how about the 'nasal-spray' pumping ringleader Merrill getting a rubdown in the Turkish baths around his "young" thugs. Preminger, never averse to tackling controversial issues [remember THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, 1955], gave us quite a singular, androgynous and perverse bunch of mobsters, possibly serving as the impetus for the wierdo atypical mobsters we saw at the end of David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence". What fun this was! This is definitely a genre classic BUT what kept this from being an all-around classic? Not my two minor beefs: 1- Tierney being miscast & 2- the way Andrews got rid of the body:through the front door! [geez!]; but, the way the movie ended. Many great movies often have a great [and hopefully happy] ending. However, here we have the movie end with Andrews surviving a gunshot, the mob, apparently vindicated and ready to walk off into the sunset with Tierney, only to see him admit his accidental killing and basically losing it all at the end. After watching the lonely cop [Andrews] and battered-wife [Tierney] find each other in this rough-and-tumble movie a happy ending was what we were primed to expect. It would have sewn this up perfectly. Major gaffe, Otto!
DVD Review: Another Great Tierney and Andrews Film
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll be honest, I'm a bit in-love with Dana Andrews. And I adore the androgynously-named-duo that is Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Nothing can compete with Laura, possibly my favorite movie of all time, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this movie. It had a great plot, was suspenseful, had compelling characters, and a satisfying ending. Tierney's performance added to her range of acting capabilities; she is sweet and demure in this film, deceptive and unbalanced in Leave Her to Heaven, stoic and a bit cold in Laura. Andrews plays a detective whose temper actually did not (surprisingly) do him in, though his obsession may have. An excellent film.DVD Review: OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 15
Summary: 5 Stars
***** 1950. Based on a novel by William L. Stuart, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS was produced and directed by Otto Preminger. A violent policeman, son of a thief, accidentally kills a key witness of the murder he must investigate. The father of the dead man's wife is charged with the murder while the policeman is feeling more and more guilty. A movie about ambiguity, about the fine line that separates the cop and the thief, the prostitute and the married woman, a genuine film noir. Outstanding Dana Andrews performance and a lesson of mise-en-scene by Otto Preminger. Masterpiece.DVD Review: Dana Andrews, not bad
Summary: 5 Stars
I probably never gave Dana Andrews enough credit, but apparently Preminger did. This is actually a very good story about a good guy who just can't seem to convince himself that good guys finish last. An extremely good movie for the time.
Andrews in this and "Fallen Angel" are not to be missed. And Linda Darnell in 'Angel': where's a time machine when you need it!
Description of Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox Film Noir)
A vigilante cop kills a suspect then falls in love with the mans widow. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 12/06/2005 Starring: Dana Andrews Gene Tierney Run time: 95 minutes Rating: NrOtto Preminger made four films noirs at Fox, all terrific. If we set aside the peerless Laura as more psychological mystery-romance than noir, there's plenty of evidence for judging Where the Sidewalk Ends the best of the lot (the other two being Fallen Angel, a study in small-town perversity, and Whirlpool, a delicious exercise in creepy psychology, slippery mise-en-sc?ne, and daringly complicated point-of-view). It's a hard-edged tale of a borderline-vicious New York police detective, Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews), with tortuous personal reasons for overzealousness in going after the bad guys. Much of the film unreels in one night, when the murder of a high-roller from out of town precipitates a string of events that lead to Dixon's becoming an accidental killer. Preminger's direction is taut, forceful, and fluid, especially when Dixon sets about creating an alibi for himself. Unfortunately, an innocent man gets implicated, with Dixon looking on, and the guilty cop's moral and psychological torment increases with each turn of the screw.
Tightly scripted by Ben Hecht, Preminger's film lacks the anguished poetry of Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground, another 1950 noir centered on a cop (Robert Ryan) addicted to ultraviolence, but its grip is relentless. Preminger had a shrewd instinct for tapping a certain thuggish strain in Andrews, whose performance here is arguably his best. They're reunited with Gene Tierney, as a woman caught in the sidewash of sordid goings-on, and Laura cameraman Joseph La Shelle, whose work has a luster beyond the accustomed semidocumentary look of Fox noirs. Gary Merrill, usually a bland nice-guy, relishes the chance to play nasty as Dixon's gangland b?te noire Tommy Scalise, a homoerotic villain in the Tommy Udo vein with a menthol inhaler as fetish object. --Richard T. Jameson
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