Side Street

New York City.

An architectural jungle | where fabulous wealth...

...and the deepest squalor | live side by side.

New York, the busiest, the loneliest, | the kindest and the cruelest of cities.

I live here and work here.

My name is Walter Anderson.

I'm one of an army of 20,000...

...whose job is to protect the citizens | in this city of 8 million.

So 24 hours a day, | you'll find our men on Park Avenue...

...Times Square...

...Central Park...

...Fulton Market...

...the subway.

Three hundred and eighty new citizens | are being born today...

...in the city of New York.

One hundred and sixty-four couples | are being married.

One hundred and ninety-two persons | will die.

Twelve persons will die violent deaths...

...and at least one of them | will be a victim of murder.

A murder a day, every day of the year.

And each murder | will wind up on my desk.

Which of these people | will be the victims?

Which will be the killers?

New York is all things and all places | gathered into one community.

Every problem | that troubled a man's heart...

...every dream | that ever stirred his blood is here.

For this city, like any other, | is the sum of its people...

...with their frailties, | hopes, fears, dreams.

This one, does he secretly long | to recapture his vanished youth?

And this one, a part-time letter carrier, | dreaming of the unattainable:

A fur coat for his wife.

These, are they tragedy or comedy?

This man looks troubled. | He has a problem.

Might be helpful to a policeman | to know the details...

...of some of the problems | that walk the streets of New York.

Beautiful day, Mr. Lorrison.

Thirty thousand. | That's quite a sizeable sum.

- But you came to the right place. | - All in hundred-dollar bills.

Yes, sir. | I'll have them for you in a moment.

There's a story in each of them.

This is New York...

...where two persons living 20 feet apart | may never meet.

Where the passing of a casual stranger...

...may start a drama | that irretrievably alters a life.

- Hello, Joe. | - Hi.

They act like they got nothing else to do.

Like they never saw a street | dug up before.

You know, Charlie, | maybe they got too much to do.

That's why they stop.

Takes your mind off things.

Gives you a breather.

Five more years, | I'm gonna take a real breather.

Thirty years, one job, too long.

The missus and me gonna go down | to Florida when the pension's due.

Kids all grown up, we ought to | be able to get by on half pay.

No.

No Florida for me.

First stop's gonna be Paris.

Then I wanna show Ellen around | Rome, Naples. The museums, the works.

You know what I'm gonna do, Charlie?

I'm gonna get Ellen one of those | mink coats. Not the short kind.

One of those long, fluffy models.

Long enough | to sweep the Paris sidewalks.

- That's powerful whiskey you drink. | - Ha-ha.

Ah. So long, Charlie. | Gotta get through early.

Go see if my yacht's finished.

Everything's gonna be all right, baby. | Hold it.

Good morning.

Let it lay.

We just had a visitor. | No, no, no, just the mailman.

Now, don't worry, baby. | Just do what I told you...

...and our friend Lorrison | won't give you trouble.

I am worried.

I'm scared to death.

What would happen if Lorrison...?

But of course I do, honey.

Why do you think | I'm going through with this?

All right.

How soon are you sending George over?

All right, Vic.

But when this is over, | let's get away from here.

Wherever you say, Lucky. | Havana, Miami, anyplace.

You name it and we'll do it.

I'll, uh, catch up with you later.

Havana, Miami, by way of the East River.

Come on, September.

He's right on time.

Come on.

Come right in, honey. Come right in.

I couldn't raise the whole amount. | Only half.

- That's all I'll be able to raise. | - Oh, come on, now, sweetie.

That isn't what Dun and Bradstreet says. | They give you a double-A rating.

Those ratings mean nothing. | Fifteen thousand was all I could manage.

The entire affair was a filthy frame-up.

Take a look at yourself, Grandpa.

First you sell yourself | I'm nuts about you.

Crazy for your manly charms.

And now you think this is bargain day.

Well, go on down | to Gimbels bargain basement.

You're in the wrong department.

Take that other 15 grand | out of your pants or get out.

I've got a dinner date.

I can do business with your wife.

I want both the photographs | and the negative...

...before I turn over | the rest of the money.

That's the way to talk.

That's the way I like to do business.

I got myself some solid insurance too.

Right here in the apartment.

Show Grandpa what I mean.

Just drop your money | on the counter, Grandpa.

Now, pick up your pretty picture.

And beat it.

Hey, look.

Hey, there's a body down here.

Driftmaster calling WZBT. Harbor Patrol.

Two hundred dollars in the filing cabinet.

Great deal of money | to a part-time letter carrier...

...with 50 cents in his pocket.

He's only human, | and no stronger than most of us.

In, Feathers. Come on, Dusty. In, boy, in.

Come on, Feathers. Come on, Dusty.

Hello, Joe.

- You home long, Dad? | - A couple of hours.

They transferred me starting tomorrow.

- Anyone here asking for me? | Is that you, Ellen?

They put me on an East Avenue line. | It's Joe.

It's one of those two-in-one jobs, | motorman and conductor.

Either I had to take it or retire.

Retire? On what?

The pension isn't big enough | to feed a family of squirrels.

You don't look so good, son.

I'm okay.

What's done is done.

What's the use of worrying? | Other people have lost their business.

Just stop thinking about it | and try and get something steady.

With an extra mouth to feed soon, | you got to think about a steady job.

- Ellen's at the store? | - She's at the city clinic.

Just a regular checkup.

Joe Norson doesn't have the | cold toughness it takes to be a criminal.

He thought he was stealing | a couple of hundred dollars.

But this is 30,000. | More than he bargained for.

More than he knows how to handle.

What to do? Where to hide?

Fear, confusion and panic are setting in.

Reason and judgment are going.

Joe, it's me.

Right away, honey.

Joe, look.

It's the one you've been looking at | in the hardware store.

They marked it down to 89 cents.

You wanted it, didn't you?

How could you tell?

Let's go to Sheepshead Bay tomorrow. | You can fish off the pier.

We'll take lunch.

Honey, you're through with clinics.

Reserve a private room | and get a doctor, your own doctor.

We're gonna have our baby in style.

I got a new job, a steady one, | upstate in Schenectady.

Remember my telling you | about my staff sergeant, Ben?

Well, I ran into him today.

He's been doing swell | the last couple of years in Schenectady.

And he gave me a job. | It looks like a good one too.

- Well, that's wonderful, dear, but 200... | - Well, he made me take it.

He said he'd take it out of my pay | a few dollars at a time.

Joe, you didn't do anything foolish?

You didn't borrow from some loan shark?

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