# Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950 film)
*Where the Sidewalk Ends* is a 1950 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger for Twentieth Century-Fox, starring [Dana Andrews](https://www.edgepedia.org/dana-andrews) as a violent New York City police detective who accidentally kills a murder suspect and covers up the crime.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS) It reunites the director with Dana Andrews and [Gene Tierney](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-tierney), the stars of his 1944 success *Laura*, along with cinematographer Joseph LaShelle.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd) A commercial failure on release, the film was later reassessed as one of Preminger's finest noirs and a key entry in the corrupt-cop subgenre.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/17221/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Otto Preminger, for Twentieth Century-Fox[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS) |
| Screenplay | Ben Hecht, from the William L. Stuart novel *Night Cry*; adaptation by Victor Trivas, Frank P. Rosenberg, and Robert E. Kent[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) |
| Cast | Dana Andrews (Det. Mark Dixon), Gene Tierney (Morgan Taylor), Gary Merrill (Tommy Scalise), Bert Freed, Tom Tully, Karl Malden[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) |
| Cinematography | Joseph LaShelle, who had won an Academy Award for *Laura*[6](https://classicnoir.com/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends) |
| Release | Opened July 7, 1950; Rotten Tomatoes lists a theatrical release date of June 26, 1950[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) |
| Box office | Lowest-grossing Fox film of 1950; cost $1.475 million and earned back about $1 million[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) |
| Runtime | 95 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and protagonist
Detective Sergeant Mark Dixon is a hard-boiled New York cop ashamed that his father lived a life of crime, and he has a reputation for being too tough on criminals.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) While investigating a murder, he unintentionally kills a suspect during questioning and, fearing no one will believe him, disposes of the body and tries to pin the killing on his nemesis, the gangster Tommy Scalise.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd) The plan collapses when his boss wrongly accuses the father of Dixon's love interest, the model [Morgan Taylor](https://www.edgepedia.org/morgan-taylor), of the murder.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) Dixon falls in love with the dead man's widow while her innocent father, a cab driver, stands accused.[7](https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/library/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends-otto-preminger/4009)
The character is built on contradiction. Dixon became a cop to make up for his father's criminal ways, but his hatred of criminals and inherited mean streak made him overly aggressive, to the point that his superiors demote him and threaten to go further.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd) Preminger himself framed the theme bluntly: "A cop is basically a criminal... when they become cops, they satisfy an instinct for violence, only it becomes legalized violence."[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) The film scholar Robert Miklitsch, professor at [Miami University](https://www.edgepedia.org/miami-university) and author of *I Died a Million Times: Gangster Noir in Midcentury America* (2020), calls it a prototypical rogue cop film, in which the detective's crusading behavior derives not from idealism but from the fact that his own father was a mobster.[8](https://academic.oup.com/illinois-scholarship-online/book/41652/chapter-abstract/353656593)
## Production
The film began as a property of the independent producer Frank Rosenberg, who bought the screen rights to William L. Stuart's novel *Night Cry* in late March 1948 for production through Colony Pictures with [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) distribution. [Howard Duff](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-duff) was signed to star, but the film was never made by Rosenberg; in November 1949 Twentieth Century-Fox bought his drafts and the screen rights and handed the project to Preminger as director and associate producer.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS) [Lee J. Cobb](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-j-cobb) was suspended by the studio for refusing a role in the picture, and Tom Tully was signed in January 1950 for the part Cobb had refused.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS)
**A changed ending.** In Ben Hecht's first draft, Dixon was written as the child of a murdered policeman on traffic duty, motivated by a desire to honor his dead father through revenge, and he took the law into his own hands in a way that made him barely distinguishable from the wrongdoers he pursued. Preminger filmed this version on location in New York over three weeks in spring 1950, with the finale staged at an amusement park where Dixon squared off against Scalise. After a rough cut was assembled, studio head Darryl Zanuck, previously uninvolved, demanded substantial reshoots and called Hecht back to rewrite the finale and several preceding scenes, creating a different backstory for Dixon.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) According to some accounts, the New York location footage was largely scrapped after the story change, leaving only quick establishing shots without dialogue.[9](https://nycinfilm.com/2020/10/14/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950/)
Production was delayed when Dana Andrews' nose was injured in a fight staged for the film. [Oleg Cassini](https://www.edgepedia.org/oleg-cassini), the costume designer and then husband of Gene Tierney, made his screen acting debut in the film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS)
## Style
Where *Laura* is romantic and set among uptown Manhattan sophisticates, *Where the Sidewalk Ends* is gritty, set far downtown in a world of cheap hoods and corrupt, aggressive cops, and set almost entirely at night.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd) LaShelle's photography, with shards of light reflected off wet sidewalks, lends a seedy noir glamour to run-down lodging houses, cheap cafes, and night-time exteriors.[7](https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/library/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends-otto-preminger/4009) Classicnoir.com notes that LaShelle brought a harder, less romantic lighting scheme than the dreamlike chiaroscuro of *Laura*.[6](https://classicnoir.com/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends)
The opening is distinctive: the traditional Fox fanfare is omitted, Alfred Newman's Street Scene Theme is whistled over credits in which the title and other items are written in chalk on a sidewalk, and the film begins with a high-angle tracking shot of New York pavement following the feet of an unidentified man.[10](https://www.classicfilmnoir.com/2019/08/where-sidewalk-ends-1950.html?m=1) • [11](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/sounds-from-the-city-in-film-noir/) Preminger's direction relies on long, continuous takes that follow the action smoothly, a fluidity that further links the film to *Laura*.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd)
## Release and reception
The film opened on July 7, 1950 to exceptionally poor ticket sales. It was the lowest-grossing film Fox released that year and the studio's weakest box-office performance since 1947, earning back about $1 million against a production cost of $1.475 million.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends) Rotten Tomatoes lists a June 26, 1950 theatrical release date.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends)
In England, the film was exhibited despite a 1948 resolution by the Cinematograph Exhibitors Association barring films associated with Hecht, who had proclaimed anti-British views over England's political relationship with Palestine; because Hecht was hired before the ban was enacted, his name was removed from the onscreen credits and the pseudonym "Rex Connor" was inserted.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS) Andrews reprised his film role on a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on April 2, 1951, co-starring [Anne Baxter](https://www.edgepedia.org/anne-baxter).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS)
**Critical standing.** Contemporary reception treated it as a competent, hard-edged Fox crime picture and a reunion of the *Laura* team; in later decades, as film noir was reassessed and canonized, it came to be regarded as one of Preminger's finest noirs, valued for Andrews's performance, LaShelle's photography, and its bleak moral vision.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/17221/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950) Retrospective ratings reflect that reassessment: the film holds a 100% Tomatometer score from 18 critics and an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes,[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends) and a 7.5/10 IMDb rating from about 11,000 votes.[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043132) The Museum of the Moving Image calls it "one of the essential expressions of noir style," with Andrews "never better" as the violence-prone detective.[13](https://movingimage.org/event/where-the-sidewalk-ends/)
## Preminger's disownment and legacy
Preminger claimed to remember nothing about the film, telling [Peter Bogdanovich](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-bogdanovich), "You know me so well now, you can always answer for me." The production coincided with his divorce from his wife Marion, who was leaving to serve as "ambassador-at-large" for [Albert Schweitzer](https://www.edgepedia.org/albert-schweitzer), and with a fallow stretch in which he was stuck making routine potboilers at Fox. A week before the film premiered, he negotiated a new contract that bought him his creative freedom and the opportunity to become an independent producer, so the film marked the end of a dark period rather than the start of a new one.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends)
The film's legacy runs through the rogue-cop template, the officer whose violence makes him indistinguishable from the criminals he hunts, which recurs across subsequent decades of police thrillers.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/17221/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950) A BFI *Sight and Sound* survey of police films lists it among the genre's brutal cops.[14](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/support-your-local-police-movie) It was released on DVD in 2005 in the Fox Film Noir line[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd) and on Blu-ray by Twilight Time.[15](https://www.blu-ray.com/Where-the-Sidewalk-Ends/338440/)
## References
1. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26567-WHERE-THE-SIDEWALK-ENDS)
2. [Jeremy Arnold, "Otto Preminger's Where the Sidewalk Ends on DVD," TCM (2005)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/113873/otto-premingers-where-the-sidewalk-ends-on-dvd)
3. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950): analysis, influences and similar films, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/17221/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950)
4. [David Kalat, "Where the Sidewalk Ends," TCM (2010)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/333842/where-the-sidewalk-ends-where-the-sidwalk-ends)
5. [Where the Sidewalk Ends, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_sidewalk_ends)
6. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Classic Noir](https://classicnoir.com/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends)
7. [Where The Sidewalk Ends, Close-Up Film Centre](https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/library/films/where-the-sidewalk-ends-otto-preminger/4009)
8. [Robert Miklitsch, "Where the Sidewalk Ends: Theft, Adaptation, Prototypicality," in *I Died a Million Times* (University of Illinois Press, 2020)](https://academic.oup.com/illinois-scholarship-online/book/41652/chapter-abstract/353656593)
9. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), NYC in Film](https://nycinfilm.com/2020/10/14/where-the-sidewalk-ends-1950/)
10. [Film Noir: Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), classicfilmnoir.com](https://www.classicfilmnoir.com/2019/08/where-sidewalk-ends-1950.html?m=1)
11. [Sounds from the City in Film Noir, Senses of Cinema (2012)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/sounds-from-the-city-in-film-noir/)
12. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043132)
13. [Where the Sidewalk Ends, Museum of the Moving Image](https://movingimage.org/event/where-the-sidewalk-ends/)
14. [Support your local police movie, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/support-your-local-police-movie)
15. [Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Blu-ray.com](https://www.blu-ray.com/Where-the-Sidewalk-Ends/338440/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1940 to 1975*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license