ah and noir . my favourite genre . otto preminger follow up to laura be a film noir set in a postwar new york and where corruption and violence run rampant . it star dana andrew a sergeant mark dixon and a detective whose brutal tactic have land him in hot water with his superior . when he accidentally kill a murder suspect and dixon try to pin the blame on crime bos tommy scalese . dixon be close to achieve his goal when he become involve with the dead man wife and the beautiful morgan taylor . of course and in typical noir fashion and thing quickly go down hill . while the film do nothing interest camera or narrative wise and it do have a constant tone of dread and gloom . like most great noirs and it be also wonderfully pace and suck the viewer in right from the start . still and like most of preminger workmanlike film and it not something i would watch again . it lack the verbal wit of wilder and the visual flamboyance of hitchcock or the spatial experimentation of welles . like lang later work and sidewalk feel very much a clone of what a noir should be and instead of something really artistically genuine . thematically the film be nothing special . it about a cop who find himself slowly become a criminal . in one scene dixon explain that his father himself be a small time crook and the film flirt with the notion of predestination and but this one scene be as far a otto go and or dare to take his idea . the camera work be likewise disappointing . there no intelligence in otto camera . no effort be make to assign the camera to anything . it doesn not play with space or architecture or empahsise the step by step police procedural . it just tripod set ups with the occasional dolly in and out . meaningless and though most people do not care about these thing . there be and however and one good shot where our hero be trap in a car full of gangster ( noir cage ) which itself enter a vehicle lift ( another cage ) and be take up into the chief gangster lair . like lynch blue velvet and otto retopologizes the film and constantly liken upstairs to hell . this work well and but the set design fail to reinforce it . positive otto seem content to follow the hawksian mould of what a noir be and rather than toy with the possibility of where noir can go . like detour and night in the city and scarlet street and in a lonely place and act of violence and bomberang and johnny eager and where the sidewalk end be one of those well make second tier film noirs . it competent and engaging and but lack that extra special magic .