The Worst Film Ever

An absolute waste of money

Absolutely amazing

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Yeah, yeah, I know; the story is about a self-loathing, hoodlum-hating, police detective who gets in a gem of a jam when he accidentally kills the murder suspect he was about to pick up and then tries to hide the body. But the truly interesting character here is the villain, Scalise—the rest of the cast being just typical noir characters: the cop with a guilty conscience, the innocent man blamed for murder; authoritative superiors, beautiful damsel in distress, assorted lowlifes. Both Scalise's initial and final scenes are great, not only because of the underlying tension, because they show him as the pivot around which the plot turns, but also because they reach deeply into Dixon's—-the cop--conflicted personality. See, the reason why Dixon hates Scalise so much is not just because Scalise is a gangster, but because he's too comfortable being so, which is unpardonable to the self-hating Dixon (he himself the son of the hoodlum who helped Scalise get in business). And Scalise knows that as he's the one who knows Dixon better than anyone else; better than his cop pal Klein, or Inspector Foley, or Morgan--Dixon's lover, whose cabbie father has been charged with the murder of the suspect Dixon killed. Scalesi can read Dixon like an open book and because of that he knows Dixon hates him most of all for being a happy hoodlum--his only miscalculation being here that he didn't know the real extent of Dixon's hatred. That's why their climatic scene is so revealing, especially after the hood is soaked. And if we listened to him, we'll know that the happy ending won't be such for Dixon. Things will happen in the slammer for him like Scalise predicted, not like the final kiss suggests, because he knows to what extent Dixon is capable of hating. And behind bars he'll have plenty of occasions for hate. That's an end contrived also by the fact that no woman will be that loving and understanding, as Morgan is, towards the man responsible for her dad suffering the humiliation of being treated like a murderer.In real life Morgan would have dumped Dixon right there, because by then it should have been obvious to her that the dominant emotion in him was his self-hatred. When put against the wall, he decides to go kamikaze on Scalesi rather than do the right thing, go to his boss and come clean on Paine's death, which would have shown her that her feelings were more important. As things stand, he chose death rather than her. This and other plot holes make for a flawed ending. For ex. who phoned the hoods to warn them, if only Steve and the cops knew he had spilled the beans? Also, how Morgan arrives 5 min. after Dixon to Paine's room, after he left her quietly eating at the resto?. And why Lt. Thomas would send a lone detective to pick up a murder suspect, specially knowing how prone this detective was to get in trouble when dealing with usual suspects? Etc.But despite its flawed conclusion this is a pretty good film noir. A very formulaic one also, even if it contains many atypical elements, some concerning Scalise. For ex. we don't see any moll there, just a bunch of guys living together (Uh?); we don't see what his game is, besides organizing crap games. He doesn't seem to have hit or killed anyone. And he's the one solving Paine's death: the crook solving the cop's crime! There's no femme fatale here either; no climactic shootout or car chase and there are only two deaths, both before 16 min. The cops don't fire a single shot.Speaking of shots, but cinematographic, the DVD commentator E. Muller refers to the fact that Preminger loved to use the least possible number in its scenes and you can see that clearly, as many scenes here have been done in a single shot, no cuts, only with camera movements. Typical noir lightning too, combinations of light & shadows that will bring memories of noirs you have already seen, specially the Oh so-Casablanca Venetian blind shadows on a wall and the dark, empty, streets at night. The pacing is impeccable; the flick flows smoothly from beginning to end like a ride in a love tunnel. The acting is mostly appropriate, specially from Andrews, a man capable of expressing a myriad of emotions only with his eyes, without a single muscle in his face moving. As for Tierney, I have to agree with Muller in his lack of enthusiasm. I don't understand why she was such a hot item at the time; she is beautiful, yes, but there's more then that to make for a Marilyn, a Liz Taylor. Even during her Morgan's most tender, sad, joyous, moments she didn't really communicate with me. Maybe it's just that, when a woman is so beautiful, her beauty acts like an emotional barrier; we see her more like an apparition, a being from beyond this world, which creates by itself, I guess, a great emotional distance. Freed did well in a more richly endowed character than the WWII sarges I have seen him doing in B-flicks and Malden seems already to be walking the streets of San Francisco. I caught a glimpse also of the top bad guy in High Noon, Ian MacDonald, who doesn't have much to do here, apart from some paperwork. The rest of the whole crew does OK, even if I found the rest owner, Martha, a bit overdone, too obvious as a romance enabler.BTW, I was noticing something familiar about Scalise until I finally got it: Sideshow Bob! Those are his mannerisms. Anyway, a pretty good, solid, well rounded noir; entertaining enough for a 7.5, but I'll take 0.5 pts. for the flawed ending.

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" is film noir at its best: entertaining, well-acted and directed, with a very good plot and outstanding cinematography and character depiction. Based on the hardboiled crime novel "Night Cry" by William L Stuart (which I have not read), the film tells the story of 16th precinct New York police detective Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews). Dixon is somewhat unconventional in his working methods. He seems to want to punish criminals in addition to investigating them, an attitude that apparently springs from his relationship with his father who was a thief and who died when Dixon was 17 years old while trying to escape from jail. At the beginning of the film, Dixon is not only passed over for promotion because of his disruptive approach to his work but is also demoted. While investigating the death of a wealthy patron of an illegal crap game, he accidentally murders the principal suspect while trying to get information from him. He covers his tracks but, in doing so, inadvertently casts suspicion on an innocent taxi driver, who happens to be the victim's father-in-law. To complicate matters further, Dixon falls in love with Morgan (Gene Tierney), the taxi driver's daughter and the estranged wife of the man he has killed. Matters continue from there (but it would be inappropriate to say anything more about them).The acting in "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is superb. Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney give excellent performances and are ably supported by Karl Malden (who plays the detective who is promoted at Dixon's expense) and Gary Merrill (who plays Scalise, the crook who organised the illegal crap game that brought about the events depicted in the film). Andrews's performance skilfully elicits sympathy from the viewer for a character who is dogged by his antecedents and by the anguish and injury that his unconventional behaviour causes. The screenplay is very good indeed. And one of the many effective aspects of the film is its judicious use of its excellent score. Indeed, one of the notable features of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is the comparative absence of music in important parts of the film. The opening credits, which consist primarily of a picture of a pair of feet walking along a pavement (sidewalk), have no musical accompaniment at all. There are some faults. A fight scene involving Dixon and Scalise and his fellow hoodlums seems amateurish in execution (many of the seemingly effective punches thrown make no contact whatsoever with their intended targets), even for a film made in 1950. And the optimistic tone of the conclusion jars somewhat. But, despite its faults, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is a very clever, enjoyable and entertaining film. 8/10.

I only had an interest in watching this because of the title, it's also that poem book by SHel SIlverstein, and I love him. But i was pleasantly surprised at how much i actually liked this movie. Otto Preminger gives a superb example of just what a good film noir is all about. The main character is a rough cop who accidentally kills someone, and must cover up the tracks while still being a good guy and trying to win the heart of the widow of the man hes killed. It makes for a dramatic and interesting watch. The best little plot twist is that the wife's father is suspect number 1 in the murder of her husband, and the detective is trying to clear the innocent man while not getting in trouble himself. It's a pretty classic textbook film noir kinda of movie. My favorite part of this movie is just how calm and intelligent Dana Andrews pulls off playing the detective.

When you think of the cinema in the late 40's early 50's of the nineteenth century the first thing that should come to mind is Film Noir. With the timidly evil detective and the New York City scenery,i'd have to say this film matches that genre exact. However, I do have to admit I had a hard time paying attention to the entire film due to the lack of interest I had with the plot. I felt as if I was watching people talk the entire time. Maybe it had to do with the lack of cinematography in the film. There were some interesting shots here and there for instants the shot where the man is looking out the window down at a taxi cab. The window frames the shot very well, but besides that it was mainly just people conversing in a room full of furniture. On the other hand the smoothness of the camera work was something my eye did catch. With the amount of talking there was, the camera moves very smoothly from person to person with a limited amount of cuts. It created a very fluid way of traveling scene to scene.