Director: Richard Fleischer
Producer: Stanley Rubin
Screenwriter: Earl Belton
Cinematographer: George E. Diskant
Studio: RKO 1952
Main Actors: Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor
Similarly to Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground, The Narrow Margin is a film separated by two halves. The first portion of the movie resides in a clearly noir world full of dark urban streets and ominously lurking shadows. Two buddy cops are assigned with protecting a mob boss’s widow, Frankie Neall (played by Marie Windsor), as she plans to testify for a scheduled grand jury. When they arrive at her apartment to chaperone Mrs. Neall on the train trip to Los Angeles, one of the policemen is shot and killed by a mobster hiding in the darkness. The surviving detective, Walter Brown (Charles McGraw), had earlier stressed to his partner his disdain for this woman, whom he describes as “a sixty cent special.” Now, Brown must accompany her to the waiting locomotive, even though his colleague has just been cut down in the line of duty. The tension worsens as the obviously ungrateful Mrs. Neall reveals to have little regard about the transpired events. Brown finds the price being payed to protect such a vile creature unworthy of the sacrifice his associate has made.
The bulk of the picture ensues on the train after Walter Brown has successfully transported the important witness to two adjacent secretive compartments. The film loses most of noir’s usual chiaroscuro lighting but replaces it with a dramatic tautness that arises in the more cramped environment. Nameless figures encircle the two leads and a tense cat-and-mouse game ensues. As careful as he is, Brown is spotted by one of the hoods and followed aboard. In transit, he must juggle his duty to keep self centered Mrs. Neall safe from the stalking goons, a possible budding romance, and various treacherous figures who continuously try to either bribe or kill him.
I love movies that take place on trains. Something about the forced restriction of tight quarters and the feeling of claustrophobia that builds among the characters always leads to compelling drama. The Narrow Margin is very effective in this aspect. It plays up to the strengths that are inherit in such a setting. The decision to maximize the sounds of a big mass of steel barreling down a set of tracks is rewarding. It becomes the soundtrack of the film and enhances the mood.
There are some glaring plot holes though that keep The Narrow Margin from securing a higher place on this countdown. First off, the peculiar twist at the end leaves me confused as to why such a complex attempt at deception is necessary. A few of the other problems are:
* How is it possible that no one seems to know what the wife of a famous gangster looks like?
* Why would Walter Brown, who’s in charge of escorting an important female witness and fully aware that mobsters are breathing down his neck, put another woman in danger by befriending her? As attractive as Ms. Sinclair may be, it seems like a recklessly boneheaded thing to do.
* Then, once the plot twist has occurred, it seems that Walter Brown has completely forgotten about his responsibilities as a law officer. He doesn’t seem at all concerned or interested with a certain development that has proven to be tragic.
Despite script weaknesses, The Narrow Margin is a film that is helped by its short running time. It is a lean, svelte 71 minutes that delivers the pulpy goods to any noir aficionado. Charles McGraw plays a good guy and Marie Windsor is spectacular as the bitchy “poison under the gravy.” Well-paced with a rhythm as steady as an actual locomotive, it is an entertaining trip that has earned its legendary B-movie reputation.
As you say, the script isn’t the tightest or the most logical, but the film excels at capturing the claustrophobic feel of all those train corridors. Half the film seems to consist of the hero running back and forth across the train, pursued by his shadowy enemies, squeezing through all the tight passages. The villains are mostly pretty distinctive and interesting, too, and Marie Windsor is great fun even if her character basically makes no sense whatsoever in the end, and gets utterly forgotten. At least she gets a fantastic send-off: love that shot of the phonograph needle scraping across the record.
“Nobody loves a fat man except his grocer and his tailor”! Those tight corridors sure are impressively conveyed. Thanks for your comment Ed. I also want to mention that your The Conversations with Jason Bellamy are absolutely incredible. I’ve read all of them. The depth of analysis is of the highest order.
Thanks for the kind words, Maurizio.
And that quote reminds me that the film also has some humor mixed in with its suspense.
This is one of noir’s most econonomical entries, one where Fleischer uses space and claustrophobic confines to excellent effect. One can easily be tempted to make rightful comparisons to Anthony Mann’s THE TALL TARGET, Fritz Lang’s HUMAN DESIRE, and Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, but the results here are more specific and inobstrusive. The excellent cinematographer in the film’s corridors was negotiated by one of the great cinematographers, George Diskant, who lensed some of Nicholas Ray’s most venerated films. With the focus of this film aimed at a single situation (the transport of a key witness) Fleishcer and screenwriter Earl Fenton are able to offer acute psychological portraits of a rather fascinating lot of characters, who react to certain situations within the framework of noir specifications. As Walter Brown and Mrs. Neil, Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor turn in impressive performances, playing along with the deceit operating beneath the surface.
Your third entry of this countdown is a very good one, and you’ve supported it with an outstanding piece. Your well-defined “problems” are certainly well-noted.
I also love the early train sequences in Annakin’s ACROSS THE BRIDGE from 1957. I just saw that film for the first time about a month and a half ago. Loved it. Maybe it has a chance to appear in this countdown.
Indeed Jamie. And also Renoir’s LA BETE HUMAINE.
I also like Murder On The Orient Express by Lumet. Not as great as Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon, but an entertaining slice of superficially light fluff. Old school entertainment that I usually rail against if not set on a train lol. The haunting opening scene is remarkable. The score during that intro is effectively ominous…
I almost mentioned that one Maurizio, as well as two other Hitchcocks, but I was trying to stay in the noir confines, which in retrospect was rather foolish. I completely agree with what you say here!
Yeah the opening scene of Murder On The Orient Express could be viewed as a great horror short. The rest of the picture, while good, can’t possibly match it.
The Horror passage on a train? The 70’s giallo/extreme shocker (and ‘Virgin Spring’ homage) ‘Avere vent’anni (aka ‘To be Twenty)’ by Fernando Di Leo.
Does anyone here know Horror Express with Telly Savales? That’s a premium shocker.
Oh Frank I’m jealous! I’ve always heard great things about that one but I’ve never had it available to me to view. (though I haven’t tried that hard)
It’s one of those sacred 70’s titles that if you go to a Horror convention it’ll be discussed and most booths will have copies available. Sort of like ‘Blue Sunshine’ and ‘Bad Ronald’.
The company that put the DVD out is called Image Entertainment. I think Sam likes this one too.
Excellent write-up and a beauty of a frame capture.
The best James Bond of them all is set on a train, too. Not to mention ‘Horror Express’….geeez, that brings back memories.
Hey guys. It’s been a while, but as I have told Sam this has been a busy few weeks. Mr. Roca has chosen an excellent still for his post. And I know this film very well, and support it’s selection for the noir countdown. The train corridor sequences are loaded with nail-biting tension in a subtle key. Great noir introduction a few day ago, and some very good choices. I will be following this closely.
Thanks Pete!! I try to pick stills that really show the aura of film noir that has hooked me for years. Atmosphere is my main goal when choosing images. Like I said in the intro, the film noir “style” is about 33% of the equation lol. Cinematography has always been a big thing with me when it comes to cinema. One of the reasons I can enjoy minor stuff like The Black Dahlia. Without a good script or effective theme, I won’t love such a film, but I can at least marvel in it’s imagery.
This is actually one of the few film noirs I own on an original boxed DVD. I was offered a cheap price so I picked it up. I wasn’t all that bothered with the script weaknesses, as the film was unremittingly gripping.
Horror Express! A film impossible not to love. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing vs. an alien-possessed missing link, a mad monk and Telly as a mighty Cossack, with eyes bleeding all around. A former fixture of WOR back when that station was a primary reason to have cable TV.
Indeed Samuel, how perfectly you size it up there! Yes Frank I have always liked this and yes Bobby and Jamie, it’s an unforgettable train movie.
It is also indeed an Image DVD, and I do own it. It’s a pretty good widescreen print!
Haha what don’t you own Sam. Didn’t you say you own 6k DVDs on Allen’s post.
Indeed Maurizio, and I can’t say I’m really proud. Most people would scoff and say rightly “That dude has some serious issues.” If we can get you around on Oscar night a week from Sunday, I’ll provide you with the living proof.
Maurizio
Marie Windsor may be my favorite fatale, femme or otherwise, right up there on the marble column with – guess who — Babs Stanwyck, the Black Widow herself. I love it that you find her spectacular, too.
Yeah Windsor really excelled in the world of noir Mark. You just brought up something I never really gave much thought too. Greatest femme fatale/noir actresses of all time. Sounds like a great possible future list lol.
Nice write-up Maurizio and a brilliant frame you have chosen to headline the piece.
The picture starts off in noir mood but once we board the train it becomes a smart thriller with few noir pretensions. The direction is sharp, the dialog snappy, and the cast top-notch. The early night scenes before the action switches to the train trip from Chicago to LA, are brilliantly filmed by George E Diskant with stark lighting and shadows, and low angles.
Marie Windsor makes this movie, and when she is bumped-off in the second reel, I sort of lose interest. She dominates every scene she is in with her aura of sex, excitement, and nervous fear. Her great lines are delivered flawlessly with great rolling of her incendiary eyes and almost always with a cigarette in her mouth or hand. You don’t want this vixen to leave the screen. As I said in my review at fn.net: “She is brutally bumped-off and to my exasperation is never alluded to again. This cheapens the rest of the story for me, because she is the one character who is exposed to the most danger, and merits the greatest kudos. To be simply forgotten is almost misogynistic”.
There is an obscure 2002 interview with the producer of The Narrow Margin, Stanly Rubin, who also wrote Decoy (1946) and Macao (1952). Apparently Howard Hughes, owner of RKO at the time of the movie’s release, had a scene towards the end of the film concerning the Marie Windsor character cut: “[Hughes did one] thing which was not smart, it was just an oversight, I guess, on his part and we didn’t discover it until one night at Cinematheque at the Egyptian. They ran Narrow Margin and someone asked: ‘How come Charlie McGraw and Jacqueline White didn’t go to pay their respects to Marie Windsor, who’d been shot and killed in the line of duty?’ And I said, of course they stop to see her, before you saw them sneaking off the train to go down the tunnel to get into town. Well, we looked at the picture again and that scene had been removed. That moment we had shot was gone. That was a bad, bad, bad oversight on the part of Mr. Hughes.”
Ah Tony, you beat me by only minutes here!!!!
Here is Tony’s filmsnoir.net review, effusively favorable:
A very enjoyable B thriller from a crew with strong film noir credentials. Director, Richard Fleischer, is ably supported by cameraman, George E. Diskant, and the movie features a strong cast of b-liners, with the tough Charles McGraw and the exciting Marie Windsor in the leads. A nice plot twist propels the tension to the end. From the dramatic opening credits of a train screeching through the night, The Narrow Margin, has you hooked.
One of the best on-a-train thrillers, this movie starts off in noir mood but develops into a smart thriller with few noir pretensions. The direction is sharp, the dialog snappy, and the cast top-notch. The early night scenes before the action switches to a train trip from Chicago to LA, are brilliantly filmed and edited, with stark lighting and shadows, and low angles.
On the train, tension is heightened by judicious cuts to the steaming train running aggressively from right to left across the screen. There is a nice piece of montage worthy of Eisenstein half-way through the trip which gives a cut to the train even added tension: the action cuts from Marie Windsor frantically filing her nails to the churning wheels of the steam engine.
For me this film is all about Marie Windsor as the dame in trouble scrapping with her cop protector. She dominates every scene with her aura of sex, excitement, and nervous fear. Her great lines are delivered flawlessly with great rolling of her incendiary eyes and almost always with a cigarette in her mouth or hand. You don’t want this vixen to leave the screen.
She is brutally bumped off towards the end, and to my exasperation is never alluded to again. This cheapens the rest of the story for me, because she is the one character who is exposed to the most danger, and merits the greatest kudos. To be simply forgotten is almost misogynistic.
This weakness aside, the closing scenes are classic compositions which accentuate the escape from the claustrophobia of the train while remaining on the “straight and narrow”:
I read about that botched edit from Howard Hughes but forgot all about it until you reminded me. Always good to have a noir expert tighten up the loose ends in the comments section lol. We seem to have a similar opinion on the film and Windsor in particular. Hughes was always delaying releases at RKO when he brought the studio. I heard Christopher Nolan may do another biopic on the mogul. It seems he desires to focus on the crazy years that Scorsese mostly bypassed in The Aviator.
Tony, could you point me to the magazine or book where I can further read up on it. RKO and Hughes, I find fascinating!
Yes Bobby, a fascinating topic, and one I too would like to read more on. I have not read any book or magazine articles on RKO and Hughes. What I have read has been related in sources where Hughes is mentioned anecdotally. Sorry.
That interview with Stanly Rubin I quoted was from an orphaned blog LA blog: http://www.hollywoodfiveo.com/archive/issue2/cinema/rubin.htm
“There is an obscure 2002 interview with the producer of The Narrow Margin, Stanley Rubin, who also wrote Decoy (1946) and Macao (1952). Apparently Howard Hughes, owner of RKO at the time of the movie’s release, had a scene towards the end of the film concerning the Marie Windsor character cut: “[Hughes did one] thing which was not smart, it was just an oversight, I guess, on his part and we didn’t discover it until one night at Cinematheque at the Egyptian. They ran Narrow Margin and someone asked: ‘How come Charlie McGraw and Jacqueline White didn’t go to pay their respects to Marie Windsor, who’d been shot and killed in the line of duty?’ And I said, of course they stop to see her, before you saw them sneaking off the train to go down the tunnel to get into town. Well, we looked at the picture again and that scene had been removed. That moment we had shot was gone. That was a bad, bad, bad oversight on the part of Mr. Hughes.”
Hi! Maurizio Roca…
What a nice review too!…Tony, I do recall sending you, and Alexander Coleman…This Obscure review… (after I located this review during an online search)… after I jokingly, proclaimed actress Marie Windsor…both yours, and Alexander Coleman’s girlfriend.
[Postcript:Nice super-imposed screen capture too!]
DeeDee 😉 🙂
I’ve often felt that the debut of motion pictures was well-timed because the early twentieth century was more “cinematic” in many ways than the early twenty-first: characters talking on a big phone just pops better than characters on a cell phone; train compartments (and bellowing steam) provide more dramatic opportunities than airplane corridors; even letter-writing makes for a more visually appealing montage touchstone (and voiceover opportunity) than e-mails. Just to name a few examples.
On a related side note… whenever I see a 90’s movie and someone whips out a beeper I break out into giggles. Seeing older outdated methods of communication/transportation work better than more recent examples. Time always leads to a lessening of this though…
I think Oliver Stone feels the same way. In the best scene in Wall Street 2 – a lousy movie btw – there is the nice visual gag of Gekko checking out of prison and getting back his cell phone from Wall Street 1 🙂
To me, it’s a useful way to contextualize a film, to understand its time and place. Instruments of dating like those are a good thing. Those Atari controllers on the breathing television set in “Videodrome” help remind you not only that the movie takes place in the 80’s, but that it’s fundamentally about the 80’s. Stuff like this is best handled naturally, and not with telegraphed winks. That way lies the ignominious fate of being turned into a pop-culture joke.
Yeah it’s amazing how cyclical that stuff is. Goes from being relevant to slightly stale to somewhat dated to comically dated to nostalgically tinged to retro-cool to “classically” cool to “period piece”/of historical interest. Sort of like how every decade is notalgic for two decades past (70s for the 50s, late 80s for late 60s, 00s for 80s, etc.)
It’s not a matter of cycles or nostalgia for me. It’s just that the tech of the time does a very good job of branding its era, letting you know when everything’s all about. Watching “The X-Files” lately with its PC domination, early clamshell cell-phones and beepers lets you know that it’s a very 90’s sci-fi paranoid conspiracy thriller just as much as the framed pictures of Bill Clinton or Janet Reno on the FBI walls.
Possibly more so – what says 80s more: Reagan or the Rubik’s Cube? Or 50s – Eisenhower or a suburban tract? Products/objects/artifacts (especially in an era of mass consumption) often have a deeper connection to our perceptions of a particular era than political leaders. Or else there’s a certain lag: I’m often surprised to align certain political events with certain cultural milestones (or, actually more so, with personal memories) chronologically, as my perception of their distance in time is often variable.
I mention Clinton and Reno mostly because of how “The X Files” functions as a subversive commentary on Federal authorities in the age of Waco, Ruby Ridge and the whole underground culture of conspiracy theories going mainstream. They’re more relevant to the ideas of that show than cellphones or computers, but those everyday items are more intimate signifiers of the time as instruments of ordinary life.