Wow! Such a good movie.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Splendid virtuoso noir film of only superior qualities right through, while names like Ben Hecht as the script writer, Otto Preminger's direction, Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews guarantee something truly worth while. The story is typically bleak: a police officer will do anything to clear himself from the stain of his father's criminal record and constantly overdoes it, and it's his melancholic destiny this film is all about. Does he get through as an honest man, although he commits terrible mistakes? His comfort is Gene Tierney, who stands by him mainly because of his flaws. Above all, the script is brilliant in its subtlety, an intricate web of destiny's awesome mechanisms, which reach an impressing finale with Andrews' final confrontation with the typically abominable villain chief, who doesn't deserve anything less than being butchered, which Andrews is indeed entitled to do, but, of which Andrews is the expert, he has to control himself although you can feel his inside fury. Top score, especially for its atmospheric settings and brilliant script.

Otto Preminger directed this film noir that stars Dana Andrews as detective Mark Dixon, recently demoted for roughing up too many suspects. He is determined to take down gangster Tommy Scalise(played by Gary Merrill) but instead knocks out another suspect, inadvertently killing him. Dixon then covers up the crime, but in the ensuing investigation, finds himself falling for the man's widow Morgan(played by Gene Tierney) whose father ends up charged with the crime he committed. How can he clear him, court her, take down Scalise, and escape punishment himself? Involved thriller works well, with fine acting and compelling story, effectively re-teaming Andrews and Tierney.

Where The Sidewalk Ends stars Dana Andrews as a hardboiled Inspector Javert like detective whom I suspect would have been just as brutal with suspects after Miranda as before. Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry has nothing on Andrews. He's warned by his superiors that they'll not tolerate his brutal ways.Craig Stevens and his wife Gene Tierney have been acting as come-ons for suckers that they get to hoodlum Gary Merrill's dice game. When the latest sucker Harry Von Zell is killed by Stevens, Andrews goes after him. But a drunken Stevens punches out Andrews and Dana gets rough. What he doesn't know is that Stevens has a plate in his head courtesy of the late war and the blow that Andrews strikes Stevens with kills him.Had he not had this reputation for brutality Andrews probably would have weathered this storm. But he does have the reputation for brutality and therefore Dana knows this could be it. Stupidly he tries to cover it up until Tierney's father Tom Tully is arrested for the murder. After that it's a matter of conscience. And it was conscience that inevitably got Javert in Les Miserables. And like Javert, Andrews has a hoodlum father whose life he's trying to live down.Otto Preminger who directed Andrews in so many good features for 20th Century Fox like Laura, Daisy Kenyon, and Fallen Angel gets one more good performance from him as the lead. Serendipitously he's teamed with Gene Tierney his Laura leading lady who is as beautiful and as enchanting as she was in Laura albeit a little more down to earth. Gary Merrill as the crap game organizer is a real bucket of slime who also was a protégé of Dana's father. It's that surrogate son relationship that Andrews truly despises about Merrill.Karl Malden who gives us an indication of what he would be like in Streets Of San Francisco plays Malden's lieutenant who got the promotion because Andrews was passed over. A lot of tension in that relationship.Where The Sidewalk Ends ranks in the top 10 of Dana Andrews films and must for his fans.

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.