Where the Sidewalk Ends(1950)

Otto Preminger's follow-up to his massively successful LAURA, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS is a film noir set in postwar New York, where corruption and violence run rampant. Based on a novel by William L. Stuart, the atmospheric film stars Dana Andrews as Sergeant Mark Dixon, a detective whose brutal tactics have landed him in hot water with his superiors. When he accidentally kills a murder suspect, he tries to divert suspicion from himself and blame the death on his nemesis, crime boss Tommy Scalese (Gary Merrill, ALL ABOUT EVE), whom Dixon is obsessed with taking down. He is close to achieving his goal when he becomes involved with the dead man's wife, the beautiful Morgan Taylor (Gene Tierney, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, LAURA), which suddenly changes everything.