Where the Sidewalk Ends is a 1950 American film noir directed and produced by Otto Preminger. The screenplay for the film was written by Ben Hecht, and adapted by Robert E. Kent, Frank P. Rosenberg, and Victor Trivas. The screenplay and adaptations were based on the novel Night Cry by William L. Stuart. The film stars Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. Andrews plays Mark Dixon, a ruthless and cynical metropolitan police detective who despises all criminals because his father was one. Considered a classic of the genre, the film displays a brand of violence "lurking below urban society" considered an important noir motif. Plot Mark Dixon is a police detective who was just demoted over his too-frequent use of violence. Because his own father was a criminal, he hates them even more than is acceptable to the force. At a floating crap game in New York City run by gangster Tommy Scalise, the beautiful Morgan Taylor decides to leave for the night, with or without the man, Ken Paine, who brought her there. Effusive Texas tycoon Morrison offers to escort her home. This upsets Scalise, as Morrison is up $19,000 on his bank. Morrison says he is in town all week and "you'll get it back another night," but Paine tells Morgan she has to stay. She realizes he only brought her to the game so Morrison would follow, and is now determined to leave. Paine slaps Morgan, whereupon Morrison starts a fistfight with Paine. Morrison is knocked out, but when the police arrive he has been stabbed to death. Dixon is one of the officers on the scene. He interrogates Scalise, whom he arrested two years earlier for murder but who was acquitted. Scalise tells several lies about the crime, and implicates Paine. Dixon goes to Paine's apartment and questions him, but Paine becomes angry and starts a fight. Defending himself, Dixon does not know that a war injury has left Paine with a metal plate in his skull. When Paine falls, he hits his head and dies. After his recent reprimand, Dixon does not dare report what has happened. Borrowing Paine's coat and putting a bandage on his own face where Paine had one, he lays a false trail suggesting that Paine has left town. Back at Paine's apartment he is almost seen by Morgan's father, cab driver Jiggs Taylor, who arrives and (having found out that Paine