Post by petrolino on Nov 23, 2017 23:44:14 GMT
In 1950, crime filmmaker Otto Preminger introduced a new brutality to film noir that seemed fitting of a new decade. The existential film noir 'Where The Sidewalk Ends' tells the story of Detective Sergeant Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews), a rogue cop with a mean streak. Avoided by the public and shunned by his superiors, Dixon descends down a rabbit hole with his conscience in tow.
'Where The Sidewalk Ends' shatters the dark dreams and fatalistic nightmares of 'Laura' (1944) and 'Fallen Angel' (1945) with malicious glee. Ben Hecht's dripping dialogue is laced with acid and a heady mood of aberrant cynicism is maintained throughout. It's brilliantly photographed by Joseph La Shelle - an extraordinary five minute sequence, beginning with a deadly crime and ending with Dixon walking in on his partner, Detective Sergeant Paul Klein (Bert Freed) - finds Preminger in his experimental element. Dana Andrews' brooding study in simmering psychopathy explodes when you least expect it, the latest catalyst for his fury provided by sickening crime-lord Morgan Taylor-Paine (Gary Merrill) and his sneering band of merry thugs.
There's a bone-crunching, alcohol-fuelled fist fight in a private "bathhouse" in 'Where The Sidewalk Ends' that's like nothing audiences had witnessed previously within the fatalistic world of noir, upping the ante from a rabid, shadow-cloaked punch-up in Jacques Tourneur's 'Out Of The Past' (1947) and influencing a similarly stylish bar room bruise violet from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Killing' (1956). English composer Cyril Mockridge's melancholic string score is contemplative and remarkably spare. But perhaps it's true what they say ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Preminger would go on to direct such groundbreaking films as 'The Moon Is Blue' (1953), 'The Man With The Golden Arm' (1955), 'Anatomy Of A Murder' (1959) and 'Advise And Consent' (1962).
- "What're you always tryin' to push me in the gutter for, Dixon? I got as much right on the sidewalk as you have."
- "... that's right. Hittin' you is a special job of mine."
Dana Andrews
'Where The Sidewalk Ends' shatters the dark dreams and fatalistic nightmares of 'Laura' (1944) and 'Fallen Angel' (1945) with malicious glee. Ben Hecht's dripping dialogue is laced with acid and a heady mood of aberrant cynicism is maintained throughout. It's brilliantly photographed by Joseph La Shelle - an extraordinary five minute sequence, beginning with a deadly crime and ending with Dixon walking in on his partner, Detective Sergeant Paul Klein (Bert Freed) - finds Preminger in his experimental element. Dana Andrews' brooding study in simmering psychopathy explodes when you least expect it, the latest catalyst for his fury provided by sickening crime-lord Morgan Taylor-Paine (Gary Merrill) and his sneering band of merry thugs.
"Where the Sidewalk Ends marks a specific moment in Otto Preminger’s directorial career. After the overwhelming success of Laura (1944), he made 11 more films before he turned independent with The Moon is Blue (1953). As Peter Bogdanovich points out, Preminger never repeated the commercial success of Laura, yet, in the following nine years, he produced a string of minor successes: Fallen Angel (1945), Daisy Kenyon (1947), Whirlpool (1949), Where the Sidewalk Ends and Angel Face (1952). However, these complex and revealing cinematic texts remain significant for the reading and interpretation of his work. An adaptation of William L. Stuart’s novel Night Cry, Sidewalk is an ostensibly simple tale, told with dark and ferocious intensity. In it, Preminger examines the social aftermath of the war against the squalor, corruption and desperation of 1950s America. The film is set in New York, a doleful metropolis of crime and violence; a city with no limits, no values and absolutely no rules, inhabited by a series of disillusioned and insecure loners who are casualties of urban decline and apathy. As Thomas Elsaesser points out, Preminger belongs to a group of directors influenced by German Expressionism and Max Reinhardt, who developed a new visual culture in the period following the domination of silent film with his theatrical methods of mise en scène. (2) The brooding atmosphere of mysterious nocturnal underworld, enhanced by cinematographer Joseph LaShelle, intensifies a sense of predestination, characteristic of early expressionist dramas and typical for the texture of film noir. In this ambience, bereft of compassion and understanding, in which everyone informs on everyone else and even the omniscient police have something to hide, the dwarfed and marginalised human figure is bound to fight for redemption and survival."
- Boris Trbic, Senses Of Cinema
"I love watching Where the Sidewalk Ends right after Laura; it's a strange continuation... as if Laura was actually dead, and that whole second half was a Scotch-induced dream. Fast-forward six years, and Mark's changed his last name (perhaps he was using McPherson to escape being Sandy Dixon's kid, but felt bad, and returned to the latter surname), and luckily meets a Laura-lookalike!"
- Ginger Ingenue, Film Noir Of The Week
"Whirlpool, more melodrama than noir, was an example of what Orson Welles called “dollar book Freud”, with Gene Tierney playing a well-heeled lady that is arrested for shoplifting. When she is examined by a hypnotist who claims he can see into the minds of women, the theft is diagnosed as a symptom of mental illness. With sumptuous photography, it also has a screenplay by Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood’s sharpest scriptwriters. Hecht was on board again for Where the Sidewalk Ends, but the settings here are vastly different. This is a world of cheap cafés, seedy boarding houses and rain slicked pavements: very different to the gloss and glamour of Laura and Whirlpool, but still directed and shot in a distinctly noir way. Andrews, a sadly underrated and underused screen actor, whose career would shortly pitch into steep decline and be wrecked by alcoholism, was once more perfect for the part of the cop with a chip on his shoulder. Tierney plays a fashion model, with whom Andrews predictably falls in love while investigating the murder of her husband."
- Jack Watkins, 'Enfant Terrible : Otto Preminger'
- Boris Trbic, Senses Of Cinema
"I love watching Where the Sidewalk Ends right after Laura; it's a strange continuation... as if Laura was actually dead, and that whole second half was a Scotch-induced dream. Fast-forward six years, and Mark's changed his last name (perhaps he was using McPherson to escape being Sandy Dixon's kid, but felt bad, and returned to the latter surname), and luckily meets a Laura-lookalike!"
- Ginger Ingenue, Film Noir Of The Week
"Whirlpool, more melodrama than noir, was an example of what Orson Welles called “dollar book Freud”, with Gene Tierney playing a well-heeled lady that is arrested for shoplifting. When she is examined by a hypnotist who claims he can see into the minds of women, the theft is diagnosed as a symptom of mental illness. With sumptuous photography, it also has a screenplay by Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood’s sharpest scriptwriters. Hecht was on board again for Where the Sidewalk Ends, but the settings here are vastly different. This is a world of cheap cafés, seedy boarding houses and rain slicked pavements: very different to the gloss and glamour of Laura and Whirlpool, but still directed and shot in a distinctly noir way. Andrews, a sadly underrated and underused screen actor, whose career would shortly pitch into steep decline and be wrecked by alcoholism, was once more perfect for the part of the cop with a chip on his shoulder. Tierney plays a fashion model, with whom Andrews predictably falls in love while investigating the murder of her husband."
- Jack Watkins, 'Enfant Terrible : Otto Preminger'
Neville Brand & Gary Merrill
There's a bone-crunching, alcohol-fuelled fist fight in a private "bathhouse" in 'Where The Sidewalk Ends' that's like nothing audiences had witnessed previously within the fatalistic world of noir, upping the ante from a rabid, shadow-cloaked punch-up in Jacques Tourneur's 'Out Of The Past' (1947) and influencing a similarly stylish bar room bruise violet from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Killing' (1956). English composer Cyril Mockridge's melancholic string score is contemplative and remarkably spare. But perhaps it's true what they say ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Preminger would go on to direct such groundbreaking films as 'The Moon Is Blue' (1953), 'The Man With The Golden Arm' (1955), 'Anatomy Of A Murder' (1959) and 'Advise And Consent' (1962).
"Martin Scorsese stands out for his commitment to, and knowledge of, film history. So it's appropriate that a director steeped in Italian neo-realism, film noir and other styles would expose his "Shutter Island" cast and crew to films of the past. "Laura": Scorsese showed this Otto Preminger-directed noir from 1944 to Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, who play federal marshals. "It was the nature of Dana Andrews' behavior, his body language, and then his falling in love with a ghost," Scorsese says of the actor, who plays a police detective investigating a murder. "He doesn't look at anybody -- he's not going to be taken in by any of these witnesses."
- Scott Timberg, The Los Angeles Times
"Dana Andrews is just phenomenal in Where the Sidewalk Ends and his "subtle acting" is absolutely stunning. Just his restrained but highly expressive facial expression in scene directly after the fatal brawl is acting to die for ... Thank you and greetings from Sweden!"
- Matthias ' Math' Larsson, 'Where The Sidewalk Ends'
"In his finest achievements, Preminger leaves his audience in no doubt as to where he stands, thanks to an acute sense of what details matter and rigorous use of the camera. His awareness of the complexities of human psychology - that famous "ambiguity" - is why his characters are seldom cut and dried."
- Reynold Humphries, They Shoot Pictures Don't They
- Scott Timberg, The Los Angeles Times
"Dana Andrews is just phenomenal in Where the Sidewalk Ends and his "subtle acting" is absolutely stunning. Just his restrained but highly expressive facial expression in scene directly after the fatal brawl is acting to die for ... Thank you and greetings from Sweden!"
- Matthias ' Math' Larsson, 'Where The Sidewalk Ends'
"In his finest achievements, Preminger leaves his audience in no doubt as to where he stands, thanks to an acute sense of what details matter and rigorous use of the camera. His awareness of the complexities of human psychology - that famous "ambiguity" - is why his characters are seldom cut and dried."
- Reynold Humphries, They Shoot Pictures Don't They
Jeanne Moreau & Otto Preminger
'Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends ...'
- Shel Silverstein, 'Where The Sidewalk Ends'
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends ...'
- Shel Silverstein, 'Where The Sidewalk Ends'
