be a long way from laura . once again otto preminger directs and dana andrew star a a police detective name mark and and gene tierney be the beautiful woman who haunt him and but nothing else about where the sidewalk end resemble everyone favorite sophisticated murder mystery . instead of deliciously quotable dialogue we get gritty and harrowing realism . while the early film take place in the ritzy upper echelon of new york society and here be in the low rent district of dark street and hoodlum and cheap restaurant and crummy flat . tierney and gorgeous a ever and now work a a department store mannequin and life in washington height ( the neighborhood of the doll who once get a fox fur out of laura mark mcpherson ) . this time andrews be mark dixon and an old and sad and more troubled version of the cool cop in a trench coat . where the sidewalk end belongs to a sub genre of noir and movie about police brutality focus on cop who can not control their violent impulse . like kirk douglas character in detective story and dixon owe his seething contempt for crook to his father criminal past . where douglas be self righteous and blind to his own fault and andrew be burden by repressed guilt and self loathing . he accidentally kill a suspect and cover up his action with an attempt to throw suspicion on a slimy gangster ( gary merrill ) whom he have be vainly pursue for year . instead and a kindly cab driver be suspect because he the father of the dead man estrange and mistreat wife morgan ( gene tierney ) . dixon and fall in love with the wife of the man he kill and try desperately to save her father without give himself away . among noir protagonist and dana andrew have this distinction represent he be incapable of appear unintelligent . even when play an average joe and a he usually do and he always come across a unusually sensitive and perceptive while more than that and his air of be too thoughtful for his own comfort give him that haunt and haunt quality that be his essence a an actor . he play ordinary guy and cop and soldier and but always with a tragic undercurrent of see and know too much . his conscientious hero be mark by exhaustion and guilt and the inability ever to lighten up . no other actor could have express so well the bottle up anger and the slow burning pain and the agonized intelligence of mark dixon . he also have a mute tenderness and a muffled warmth and even wry humor that make him heartbreaking . this come out when he take morgan to a restaurant where he a regular and and for the first time we see this cold and brutal man trading mock insult with the waitress and whose sarcasm can not hide her affection and concern for him . when dixon ask his partner for money to get a lawyer for morgan father and he supply it even though they recently argue and dixon throw a punch at him . there be no word about loyalty or knowing he a good guy deep down and but we see it all in the man anguish silence and his wife resignation a she hand over some jewelry to pawn . dixon goodness come across through other people reaction to him as much a through andrew deeply move performance . though dana andrew be a minor star and he may be the quintessential forty man . he go through some movie hardly ever take off his overcoat while with that boxy and mid century silhouette and far fortify by the fedora and the glass of bourbon and the cigarette he doesn not take out of his mouth when he talk and he look imprison in the masculine ideal of toughness and impassivity . while many noirs romanticize the two fisted tough guy and where the sidewalk end offer an unflinching portrait of the reality behind the façade and a gripping and melancholy exploration of the root and consequence of violence . andrew be sadly underrate in his own time ( he be the only one of the three protagonist in the best year of our life not nominate for an academy award and though his low key performance be far more compelling than frederic march hammy and oscar win drunk ) . fortunately and andrew appear in some film that ensure his immortality and and now at last this little known film and which contain his best performance and can be see a part of the marvelous fox film noir set . this series and include a number of never before release title ( such a nightmare alley and thief highway ) and suggest that twentieth century fox may have have the fine record of all the major studio when it come to film noir .