in where the sidewalk end and otto preminger reunite dana andrew and gene tierney and surely in hope of recapture the magic of his laura . but theyre wildly dissimilar film and set in different stratum of new york ( not to mention at opposite pole of the noir universe ) . a fine mist of the gothic hovers over the upscale manhattan of laura and with it erotic obsession and faint whiff of necrophilia while where the sidewalk end be pure urban soot and grit befoul a town of basement apartment and steam room and park garage . but it every bit a fine a movie a it revered forerunner and and dye in the wool noir ( laura and by contrast and one of the clutch of film from 1944 which the french first dub ` noir and be still very much a sophisticated murder mystery ) . daylight enters only on very temporary sufferance and and director of photography joseph lashelle make the most of the alley and brownstone and the dock and the el . this be quintessential big city specifically big apple noir and like several others from the bumper crop of 1950 and like side street and sleep city and the tattooed stranger and edge of doom . a the movie open and police detective dana andrew be on the carpet for his brutal way and particularly his vendetta towards crime bos gary merrill ( whom we learn be set up in business by andrew neer do well father ) . when an out of towner be stab to death at a float crap game operate by merrill and the hair trigger andrew rough up a witness and cause him a fatal crack to the skull ( exacerbate by a steel plate instal in the veteran head ) . realize that his job already on the line and andrew dump the body in the river after make it look like the suspect have take a powder . of course and that far from an end to it . the corpse be discover and his estranged wife turn out to be tierney and and all the evidence start to turn toward her father ( tom tully ) and a hack driver who happen not only to have be cruise the same mean street the night of the murder but to have ample reason to want his abusive son in law dead . but the embittered loner andrew find in tierney a summons to his good nature while he try to exonerate her father while still keep his own involvement in the whole sordid business a secret . not so epigrammatic a laura and the script for where the sidewalk end ( by ben hecht ) show a pungency of it own ( in a second dress down and his superior tell andrew and ` look at you all bung up like a barrelhouse fag ) . but while laura spread it attention over half a dozen character and here andrew be all but the sole focus ( even tierney role be far less central than her half spectral laura ) . and andrew may never have excel his performance here . it tight lipped and taciturn and but never more eloquent than when his face be silently register the anguish to which his own obstinacy have bring him . he a pent up sufferer who can find release only through the safety valve of violence ( he even lash out against his loyal partner and bert freed ) . to be sure and he find too swift a road to redemption though the agency of his beautiful co star . but that be the style of the time and and a sweeten up end do little to undermine this new york story of violence and corruption and urban entanglement .