Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950) A Street Scene Noir

The "Street Scene" score for Where The Sidewalk Ends is by Alfred Newman.

It was originally used for Street Scene (1931) and was re-cycled by 20th Century Fox as a sort of New York City Noir signature theme. It crops up on, Cry Of The City, Kiss Of Death, I Wake Up Screaming, and The Dark Corner.

The film was directed and produced by Otto Preminger (it's one of the five Classic Film Noir he directed). The writing credits are Ben Hecht for the screenplay. Victor Trivas, Frank P. Rosenberg, and Robert E. Kent  for the story adaptation of the novel Night Cry by William L. Stuart.

The film stars Dana Andrews as sadistic Detective Sgt. Mark Dixon, Gene Tierney as Morgan Taylor-Paine,Gary Merrill as Tommy Scalise, Bert Freed as Detective Sgt. Paul Klein (Dixon's partner), Tom Tully as Jiggs Taylor, Morgan's father, Karl Malden as Detective Lt. Thomas, Ruth Donnelly as Martha, owner of Martha's Cafe, and Craig Stevens as Kenneth Paine.

Caulk on sidewalk title

This film was mostly shot in New York City. There are quite a few establishing shots obviously on location. Other studio shots (either Kaufman or Gold Meadow don't know which) and sets make use of various New York City back screen projections. Being a former New York City resident, it's fun to figure out where some of the films neighborhoods are supposed to be. A wall map in the 16th Precinct squad room shows on the East 5th Avenue, West to the Hudson and from Central Park South  to 42nd Street. The 16th Precinct covered the area of Manhattan between W. 42nd St. and W. 52nd St. West of Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River. Its station house was on W. 47th Street. It encompassed Times Square and Hell's Kitchen. A rear screen projection in the opening sequence shows Chinatown and then a squad car passing the entrance sign to the Holland Tunnel, then it shows the skyline from what appears to be the West Side Highway. A backdrop through the window of the precinct house detective squad locker room shows the Paramount building and it's clock tower at 1501 Broadway. Anybody who's read Cornell Woolrich's Dead Line At Dawn, knows it plays a prominent part in the novel.

The Paramount Building

Another scene of the Taylor apartment shows the George Washington Bridge through a window, giving it a Washington Heights local. There is a scene down on Pike Street where the Manhattan Bridge is in the background its The Lower East Side. Later a body is recovered from the East River between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, Chinatown. Another sequence has what appears to be an "el" station. The nearest to the Pike Street Lower East Side location would have been the 3rd Avenue el, but this one is a case of "movie" geography, There would have been no "el" station visible from Pike Street, the only other feasible possibility would be a subway train stopping on it's way over the Manhattan Bridge but there are no stations on the Manhattan Bridge.

Dixon (Andrews) and Klein (Freed)

16th Precinct House

N.Y.P.D. Detective Dixon (Andrews ) and his partner Detective Sgt. Klein (Freed) are called back to a precinct detective squad-room meeting. A new head of detectives Lt. Thomas (Malden) is holding an introductory meeting. While there, Detective Inspector Foley calls him aside and chastises Dixon about his latest brutality complaint making now a string of thirteen,

Insp. Nicholas Foley (Robert F. Simon)

Insp. Nicholas Foley: Your job is to detect criminals, not to punish them.

Dixon pushes back saying that he get's results. Foley tells him he's dropping him down a pay grade, and if he gets another complaint he'll be pounding a beat in uniform.

"I get results"

Meanwhile Tommy Scalise (Merrill), a mid town hood, is running an illegal crap game in a suite of rooms in a Times Square Hotel. Newspaper reporter Ken Paine (Stevens) and his ex wife Morgan Taylor-Paine (Tierney) have snagged a "fish" from Texas and brought him up to the game.

Tommy Scalise center (Merrill)

Morgan (Tierney) and Paine (Stevens)

the "fish from Texas third from right

The "fish" though, instead of dropping his wad manages to get up $19,000. At that point in the game Morgan declares that she has to work tomorrow and must go home. The Texas "fish" is all to happy to leave. Scalise mentions to him that it's not right to leave with all that cash and not give them a chance to win some back, but the "fish" counters that don't worry he's in New York City for the week and will be back to the game.

Ken is mortified and Scalise and his crew are pissed. Ken confronts Morgan who insists she must leave. When she protests Ken slaps her. The 'fish" sees that and takes a slug at Ken. A short fight results in the "fish" knocked out and laying on the sofa and Ken and Morgan leaving.

Back out on patrol after their meeting, the patrol car carrying Dixon and Klein are called to a murder scene at a Times Square Hotel. It turns out the "fish" has gotten a knife through the heart and is dead in Scalise's suite.

Scalise points a finger at Paine saying he was pretty drunk. From dispatch they get a Pike Street address for Paine and head downtown. His brownstone apartment is empty but all his clothes and belongings are still there. Dixon says he' ll hang around and wait while Klein checks to see if he's out drinking in the neighborhood bars.

Pike Street with Manhattan Bridge in the Background

Paine arrives at his flop and Dixon gives him the third degree. He tell's Paine that Scalise has pinned a murder on him. Paine, a belligerent drunk, refuses to go up to the station house with Dixon. After a brief struggle Dixon slugs Paine who falls down and hits his head on the floor. The fall actually kills Paine who, turns out,  was a war hero and had a silver plate in his head.

Panicked and thinking quick, Dixon get's a suitcase out of the closet, makes his apartment it look as if Paine grabbed his clothes and beat feet out of town.  Dixon drags Paine's body into an empty closet. Wearing Paine's trench coat he leaves the house and flags a cab down. Pennsylvania station he tells the cabby.  At the station ticket counter he buys a ticket for Pittsburgh and checks the suitcase into the baggage room. When he gets back to Pike Street Klein is waiting for him in the apartment. He tell's Klein that he got tired of waiting and figured he'd also check out more neighborhood bars. Klein reveals that apparently while he was gone Paine showed up and split. Dixon tells Klein to take a cab back to the precinct and organize a dragnet for Paine. He'll cruise around the neighborhood to see if he's still possibly nearby.

Setting up the false getaway

Jiggs leaving Pike Street

Third Ave el or Manhattan Bridge subway?

When Klein heads off in a cab Dixon grabs Paine's body and hauls him into the hall. He hears a car squeal to a stop outside and ducks with the body behind a stairway. Jiggs Taylor (Tully), a cabby and Morgan's father comes into the hall and beats on Paine's door. Finding the door open and Paine gone he splits.

Jiggs (Tom Tully) and Dixon with George Washington Bridge through window

Dixon, once the coast is clear, gets the squad car, throws Paine in the back seat, and drives to the nearby East River. There, he knocks out a watchman and dumps Paine's body into the river.

Later, back at the squad room, Detective Thomas tells Dixon that they got a lead on the woman who was with Paine. Dixon heads to the salon where Morgan works as a dress model. He gets smitten with her, and takes her to lunch. At the restaurant he gets a call from the precinct telling him to report to an address under the Brooklyn Bridge. Paine's body was found floating in the river.

Later, Detective Thomas finds out about Jiggs going to visit Paine and suspects him as Paine's killer. It all goes Noirsville when Jiggs is arrested.

Noirsville

Neville Brand

The main difference in the novel is that Paine has Morgan as his girlfriend rather than as an ex wife. Dixon still gets rough with him and accidentally kills him. In the novel it's Morgan who is the suspect in Paine's murder.

The film was supposed to try and keep the burner going under the Andrews/Tierney magic that ignited in the film Laura. It does manage to create some sympathy for Dixon's character once his backstory is revealed. Scalise is played to the hilt by Gary Merrill, he comes off as sort of a less sleasy more suave, slicker version of most of the type of characters played by Dan Duryea. Merrill obviously got more traction out of this. He did make quite a few more noirs but I've never seen half of them, Another Man's Poison (1951), Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), Night Without Sleep (1952), The Human Jungle (1954). I have seen A Blueprint for Murder (1953), Witness to Murder (1954) and the Transitional Noirs The Savage Eye (1960), and The Incident (1967).

Entertaining 8/10

The Incident (1967) New York Subway Noir

A triumvirate of native New Yorkers, director Larry Peerce (Goodbye, Columbus (1969)), veteran Noir cinematographer, Gerald Hirschfeld ('C'-Man (1949), Guilty Bystander (1950), Fail-Safe (1964) and writer Nicholas E. Baehr, all add a big city garnish of authenticity and atmospherics to this dark tale of events going out of control on a late night Bronx IRT Jerome Avenue el train heading downtown towards Manhattan. (Reports have been posted though, that most of the actual outdoor scenes of the train (below) were filmed on and around the Bronx section of the IRT Third Avenue Line which was demolished in 1973. I haven't been able to confirm this.)

Jerome Ave. Line

Baehr adapted The Incident from his earlier teleplay, which had been previously adapted as TV movie Ride With Terror (1963) which starred Vincent Gardenia, Gene Hackman and coincidentally Tony Musante who reprises his role of Joe Ferrone in The Incident. It would be interesting to someday make a side by side comparison.

The Incident is a true ensemble Noir much in the vein of Deadline at Dawn (1946) His Kind of Woman (1951), and The Girl in Black Stockings (1957).

The film stars Robert Bannard, Beau Bridges (Force of Evil (1948)), Tony Musante (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), The Detective (1968)), Martin Sheen (The Naked City, TV (1962), Ed McMahon, Donna Mills (Play Misty for Me (1971)), Brock Peters (The Pawnbroker (1964)), Jack Gilford (Mister Buddwing (1966)) Victor Arnold (Shaft (1971), The Seven Ups (1973)), Mike Kellin (The Naked City, TV (1959-1963)), Robert Fields (They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)) Diana Van der Vlis (The Girl in Black Stockings (1957)) , and Henry Proach.

Four Classic Noir actors provide some very effective cinematic memory to The Incident, Ruby Dee (No Way Out (1950), The Tall Target (1951), Gary Merrill (Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), A Blueprint for Murder (1953), Night Without Sleep (1952), Witness to Murder (1954), Thelma Ritter, (Call Northside 777 (1948), Pickup on South Street (1953), Rear Window (1954)), and Jan Sterling (Caged (1950), Union Station (1950), Appointment with Danger (1951), Ace in the Hole (1951), Split Second (1953), and The Harder They Fall (1956).

The Story:

It's the 60s, dig, it's The Bronx. Late Sunday night early Monday morning. Two blitzed deadbeats, one Joe Ferrone, and one Artie Connors are up to no good. Ferrone (Musante) has a sport jacket with his shirt unbuttoned down to his navel, wears a medallion, carries a blade, and has pointy sideburns, a real wannabe Italian stallion. Connors (Sheen) is threading it mod wears a jacket with a turtleneck. These sick puppies are gassed and really amped to make a bad scene.

Joe Ferrone (Musante) at Academy Pool Hall

Academy Pool Hall

170th Street

Joe and Artie under the  distinctive Westinghouse Whiteways streetlights

Artie (Sheen) Joe (Musante)

They close down the ten table Academy Pool Hall. Then, down on 170th Street looking for kicks, they begin to check door handles for unlocked cars. These two punks next taunt a couple on the sidewalk and then decide to mug the first cat that comes by.

waiting for a mark

Noirish

They hide in a basement stairwell. When a lone square comes down the concrete stroll they dart out pull him into the cellar. Mugging him for all the bread he's got, a measly eight bucks. They then beat the shit out of him for fun, nice guys. Not ready to call it a night these two assholes decide to book downtown to Times Square. They head to the elevated station just down the block at Jerome Avenue.

Mugging

In flashback we see the Wilks', Bill (McMahon) and Helen (Van der Vlis). Bill is shlepping their sleeping daughter home from a birthday party. He's a tight wad who won't spring for a cab back to Queens. He ops for the el and while waiting for the train gets into an argument with Helen about not wanting more kids cause they're too expensive. A downtown number 4 train pulls in. They go to get on the last car. One of it's three sliding doors is out of order. The Wilks' have to step around a sleeping drunk (Proach) who is crashed out on the rattan covered bench seat by the working door .

The Wilks's Bill (McMahon) and Helen (Van der Vlis)

sleeping derelict 

Tony Goya (Arnold) has "pantalones calientes" for Alice Keenan (Mills). Tony is grease-ball swarthy, and he can't keep his hands to himself. Alice is cherry, blond, all show and no go. Alice wears a short pleated mini skirt that swooshes tantalizingly from side to side as she walks showing lots of creamy white thigh. Horny Tony's got his eyes on the prize, Alice's golden gate.

Alice is driving Tony plumb loco, they are continually swapping spit, but Alice is constantly applying the brakes. She won't go all the way, and "pobrecito" Tony has a serious case of blue balls. He tells her he's had it, she tells him next time, maybe. He says he'll try and get some wheels, a car's got a back seat you know he's thinking.

They get on the train and into the same car as the Wilks family at Bedford Park Boulevard Station, and begin to mess around. It's not easy to get laid in New York City when you are young and broke.

Tony (Arnold) and Alice (Mills)

Alice 

a tease

next time...

young lust

Sam Beckerman (Guilford) is a bitter man he constantly kvetches to his wife Bertha that his own son won't give him five hundred bucks to fix his teeth, so he "can eat like a human being," but he'll blow that much at the track. Bertha (Ritter) is ambivalent and looking very tired of it all. They get on the train at Kingsbridge Road.

Bertha (Ritter) Sam (Guilford)

Army buddies Pfc. Phillip Carmatti (Bannard) and Pfc. Felix Teflinger (Bridges) have just finished a nice family dinner at the Carmatti's apartment. They head out the door and to the el station. Phillip is going to see his wounded pal Felix off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Felix is heading home first to St. Louis, then South from there. They get on the train at Fordam Road in the last car with the Wilks, Tony, Alice, Sam and Bertha.

Phillip (Bannard) and Felix (Bridges)

El Station

Harry (Kellin) and Muriel (Sterling) Purvis' marriage is going Skidsville. They were at a high rise cocktail party with their old friends, all of whom have been way more successful than they are. Harry is a nerdy uptight prim and proper history teacher who is happy with his lot in life. He's wearing a pocket protector, black rim glasses, carries a briefcase and an umbrella. He's a poster boy for the geek squad. Muriel is dressed all in black as if she went to a funeral. Her locks are pinned up, she wears a hair net and pearls. She is wound a little bit too tight with resentment. She is sexually frustrated, emotional exhausted, and envious of their affluent friends. She resents her priggish husband. They get on the train with the rest at Burnside Avenue.

Harry Purvis (Kellin) with fedora, pocket protector,umbrella and briefcase watching Muriel pace back and forth like a cat in heat

Skidsville

Douglas McCann (Merrill) is a recovering booze hound who is haunted by the loss of his job, his family his future. He drifts down the sidewalk towards the neon lights of a bar like a storm tossed ship to a lighthouse. He falls off the wagon at a dive on 176th Street.

Kenneth Otis (Fields) is a twink a closet gay who's looking for a real good buddy. He's clueless about how to go about it. He's is in the same bar with McCann. In the men's room Kenneth tries to get chummy with Doug and is ignored. Doug finishes his drink and heads up the stairway to the platform pausing at the stations coin booth area to drop a dime on an old boss about an upcoming interview. While Doug is on the phone Kenneth has also come up the stairs and gets into Doug's space standing right behind him like a love sick puppy. Doug tells him to get lost. They both go up the the platform and Kenny follows Doug into the same car with the rest of our cast of characters.

Doug (Garry Merrill) portrait in bar neon

Men's room meeting

Love sick puppy

At Mt. Eden Station an African-American couple Arnold (Peters) and Joan (Dee) Robinson buy tokens for the train. An innocent transaction with the change clerk goes sour and Arnold goes ballistic.  Arnold is a wannabe black militant who gets exaggeratedly offended at the slightest provocation railing against the man in general. Joan is slightly exasperated at his self righteous misbegotten belligerence.

Arnold (Peters) Joan (Dee)

Belligerent

Joan (Dee) suffers in silence

the detached calm before the storm

At the point in time when the train arrives at the next station, 170th Street, the flashback ends and real time begins as Joe Ferrone and Artie Connors board the last car.

Now if you are not a native New Yorker this fact of big city survival may not be apparent. The one thing you do not do, and you were taught this back in the day not only by family and friends but also learn it day in and day out by basic instinct, is to NOT make eye contact with strangers, and especially with crazy strangers, either on the street, on the bus, on the subway. That's just asking for trouble, and when trouble happens you stay out of it. Even a good deed can turn deadly.

Joe and Artie burst into the car at 170th Street, Artie is laughing, riding piggy back on Joe. Everyone of course looks but immediately everyone instinctively ignores. They are just two lit up rowdies out for a good time. Joe and Artie spin around a pole cackling, then run up and down the car. Joe plops down in an empty seat and swigs from his pint bottle. Artie stands near the bum.

Their first victim is the bum. Artie tries to give him a hot foot sticking a match between the sole and top leather of his shoe. He lights the match and watches with gleeful anticipation. It burns down. The bum is in La La Land, there is no reaction. Artie redoubles his efforts putting unlit matches between the derelicts lips. Doug McCann, perhaps seeing the drunken bum as his personal Ghost of Christmas Future, tells Artie to knock it off. He's the first of the passengers to stand up to the punks but when no one else joins in he backs off.

(Let's just pause for a moment to discuss the setup of the final act. The subway car that our characters ride has a total of eight doors. It has two manually operated doors at each end, but since this is the end car of the train the door at the tail end is locked. The manually operated door at the opposite end is broken and wont open. If it did open you could pass between cars while the train is running. So that leaves six automatic sliding doors three on the right side of the car and three on the left. Since this train is a local the doors only operate on the right side of the car. On this particular car one of those doors is broken and inoperable. When Joe and Artie effectively take the car over they use the shoe of the unconscious bum to wedge another sliding inoperable leaving only one way in and out of the car.)

In this claustrophobic environment Joe and Artie systematically degrade, terrorize and humiliate all the passengers. Joe is the sociopath, the bigger jackass and more aggressive.  Artie is Joe's sidekick more of a follower aping his moves.

 Terrorizing

racing through the car

terrorized

Artie trying to set the bum on fire

Doug catching heat

tormenting the twink

busting the chops on the Beckermans

scoping out the lovers

copping more of a feel than Tony

sizing up the soldiers

Arnold having a good ol' time watching Whitey get his....

...until Joe starts pushing his buttons

Artie grabs Joan and Arnold is pissed..

frustrated...

and broken

Joe and Artie have their way until they go one victim to far in the claustrophobic confines of the subway car.

In an ironic bit of prescient commentary on today's current events when the cops finally get to the car they immediately try to arrest Arnold the only black man.

Tony Musante is frightening as Joe. Beau Bridges is heroic as Felix. Brock Peters is outstanding showing some great range as Arnold. Gary Merrill is great as the down and out alkie, Jan Sterling equally as the crumbling beauty facing a stagnant life. Mike Kellin is a wonderful as the dweeb.  Martin Sheen, Ruby Dee, Victor Arnold, Jack Gilford, Diana Van der Vlis, and Ed McMahon are all believable. Donna Mills is pretty much eye candy. Thelma Ritter who always seemed to play a feisty older woman here really is old and she looks tired, this was her second to last film, she died 15 months after this was released.

Noirsville

The Incident is the best NYC Subway based psychological thriller film out there. Music was by Charles Fox and Terry Knight. Sound by Jack C. Jacobsen. There is no current R1 or R0 video available for The Incident. Screen caps were from the R2 Simply Media. 9/10 a 10/10 with a restoration.