Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Oscar Preminger's tough thriller stars Dana Andrews as Mark Dixon, a New York cop with a penchant for roughing up suspects. But one night, he goes too far and his suspect dies. He tries to frame gangster Tommy Scalise but the official investigation leads to Tod Benson, the victim's father-in-law. As Dixon is drawn into the case, he meets and begins to fall in love with the murder victim's estranged wife, Morgan Taylor. Rather than let his love's father be sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit, Dixon concocts a scheme to confront Scalise and his gang in the hope that Scalise will be killed and Benson will be cleared. But his plan goes dreadfully wrong when the gang surrenders and Dixon is left with no way out of his murderous situation.