Director: Anthony Mann
Writer: Sydney Boehm
Stars: Farley Granger, Cathy O’Donnell, James Craig, Paul Kelly, Jean Hagen, Paul Harvey, Edmon Ryan and Charles McGraw
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Index: 2025 Centennials.
Farley Granger was tempted into all sorts of trouble as the forties became the fifties. Alfred Hitchcock made him a murderer in Rope, then Nicholas Ray put him on the run for murder in They Live by Night and Hitch put him right back in the murder game in Strangers on a Train.
He’s a thief here—“no hero, no criminal, just human like all of us, weak like some of us but foolish like most of us”, as the Chief of Police tells us at the end. He sees an opportunity and he takes it, but then he feels guilty about it so does all he can to fix what he did. His problem is that he does all the wrong things, even if he does them for the right reasons.
Side Street has all sorts of flaws, but it works for me on two fronts. For one, it’s a beautifully shot exploration of New York, the city being a deeper and more substantial character than a bunch of the supposed leads. And for two, it’s a great unwitting descent, where we watch Joe Norson jump into a hole, then continue to try to dig his way out of it until he almost makes it to Australia. If you’re one of those moviegoers who likes shouting at characters on screens to not do the stupid thing they’re about to do, I’d highly recommend this one to you.
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