Looking for the easy way out. . . it’s often a motif of the film noir. Taking the idea to its seemingly inevitable conclusion, director Anthony Mann (Desperate) definitely drives the concept down what seems to be every Side Street (1949) in The Big Apple in this tale of go on, take the money and run.
Joe Norson (Farley Granger) is anticipating the birth of his first child with wife Ellen Norson (Cathy O’Donnell). The acting pair grace the screen together for the second and final time following They Live by Night from the previous year. . . funnily enough, it almost plays as a ‘what could have been’ second chance for that couple.
Joe is struggling to find work in this post-war New York City. With a failed business, he is a part-time mailman. . . a job that will open him up to a crooked financial opportunity. Thinking he’s seen where a couple hundred dollars is in lawyer Victor Backett’s (Edmon Ryan) office, he comes back to nab it, seeing it as a much needed start for his wife and soon to come son.
Of course, there is actually thirty grand in the legal envelope and he quickly realizes he’s way over his head. Already wracked with guilt over what he’s done, he soon realizes that this is not just a robbery, but the people he’s stolen from are just as shady as some good noir cinematography.
Trying to hide the money, he leaves it disguised as a package with local bartender Nick Drumman (Edwin Max), also telling his wife that he must leave town for a new lucrative job opportunity with one of his wartime mates. . . instead living on the sketchy side streets of NYC.
Filled with unflattering characters, it’s hard to trust anyone in this big city landscape. There will be two femmes, an alcohol loving nightclub singer, Harriet Sinton (Jean Hagen), and a money hungry dog loving dame, Lucille ‘Lucky’ Colner (Adele Jergens), while big Georgie Garsell (James Craig) will be the lawyer’s right hand of retribution, ushered around the streets by twitchy taxi driver Larry Giff (Harry Bellaver).
With these rough and tumble guys on Joe’s trail, he returns to collect the money, only to find that both Nick and the package have mysteriously disappeared (with him having sold the bar). Will Joe be able to evade capture while playing amateur detective? Will he be able to track the elusive bartender? And, what will his wife think when she finally discovers where he’s been while she is in labor?
An interesting mix of almost documentary-like depictions of life on the side streets of New York City fused with a police procedural narration utilizing ultra-stylized visuals, the central car chase is unlike anything seen at the time. Roaring through the maze-like roadways of the city, Mann takes the camera everywhere from thirty plus stories all the way down to hip height to capture the action. Bookending this with tense journeys into moody bars, pigeon-filled rooftops, seedy motels, low lit slum housing, it’s hard to argue that seeing this long gone part of New York City is worth the price of admission alone.
Anthony Manns’s final noir before moving onto other genres (often the western), Side Street ably shows off the more cynical side of post-war New York City. With Granger at his nervous best, some memorable femme fatales, and some of the most striking visuals of the Big Apple you’ll ever see, this is a noir worth experiencing. So, discover if Joe should shoot for the moon, or if those star-crossed gangsters are gonna get him.