The Narrow Margin

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Ted B 4.0 stars; One of the better film noir movies from the early 1950s. A surprising hit, considering it had a top Director (Richard Fleischer) leading a bunch of good but lesser known character actors. From the TCM Channel; Howard Hughes, at RKO, loved the movie. But he refused to release the film because he wanted to reshoot it with big-name actors of the time (Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell). Fleischer loved the film as shot. Two years later, the film was released when Fleischer agreed to do a big-name cast movie for Hughes. The movie takes place mostly on a train. This cleverly adds to the great thriller suspense of taking place in an enclosed area. The character actors did their jobs well. The Director put the audience on the train with these characters. I also liked the plot twist at the end of the movie. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/07/24 Full Review Steve D Not a lot new here but entertaining. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/06/24 Full Review Morvia 8thsin/ 3 The movie in duration in acting puts the viewer into the film as not wanting to leave the viewer while many lines are classic and not matched from any of my viewing experiences. This movie stands the test of time in my opinion as there are not any imperfections nor inconsistencies. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/30/24 Full Review j f RKO and Robert Fleischer make another B that bangs! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/21/24 Full Review Taylor L "You make me sick to my stomach." "Well use your own sink." Love a movie that takes place on a train, the confined spaces and sense of urgency are great, and The Narrow Margin is no exception. It was a relatively inexpensive film to produce, features no Hollywood royalty (Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor were classic noir regulars, but don't carry the pop-culture impact of Bogie and Bacall), and doesn't even have a real soundtrack - train noises are used in place of most of those spaces. And yet, in 71 minutes we make our way through a tight, satisfying noir-thriller screenplay that would earn writer Earl Felton an Academy Award nomination, and come out the other side satisfied. A hardboiled detective is forced into a game of cat-and-mouse with a group of mob hitmen trying to find the charge he is portecting - the venomous wife of a dead gangster, on her way to testify to a jury. There's a series of half-polite interactions and clandestine negotiations as cop and hood try to get the better of one another, without alerting anyone on the train as to what's going on. There aren't necessarily standout performances (except perhaps Peter Brocco as an in-plain-sight mobster that would rather get what he wants through payoffs instead of bullets), but everything is put together well, the tone is consistent, and the movie doesn't pad for time at all. Solid noir that falls short of being a pop culture classic, but still well worth a watch, particularly given that most TV dramas today have longer episodes for mid-season finales. I love the idea of someone getting caught with a gun on a train, but it's the 1940s so the conductor is basically just like, "Yes, and? He's allowed to have that, you can buy that at a hardware store." (3.5/5) Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/06/23 Full Review Audience Member I’ve always been a fan of movies that take place on a train. It feels like the passengers are in their own little world, cut off from everyone else. It tends to be a great location for a thriller because everyone is clustered so close together, which makes it nearly impossible to escape the danger, and that’s why I was so enthralled by The Narrow Margin. This film is delightful. It is about a police detective who must protect a mobster’s widow who has vital information as she travels to trial on a cross-country train. I was on edge the entire time, always worried about our hero and his mission. I think where the movie fell just short of greatness for me was in some of the actions of the characters in the film. Many of them didn’t make sense, or felt improbable. Some of that is cleared up later in the story when all the truth comes out, but there are still choices that people make that seemed illogical to me. What delighted me most in The Narrow Margin was that it surprised me more than once. There are some twists to the story that I never saw coming, and when a movie can pull the rug out from under you as well as this movie did for me, it is a cool experience. I quite like the film noir feeling in this movie, and some of the dialogue is in that classic old style to fit the genre. The actors were all excellent. Charles McGraw has a great gravelly voice that plays into the tough personality of his character. Marie Windsor is excellent as the mobster’s widow who acts spoiled and entitled. She almost feels over-the-top at times, but she has her reasons. Finally, Jacqueline White is sweet and kind, which is perfect as a counterpoint to the mobster’s widow. I had a great time with The Narrow Margin, and I’m excited to see it again now that I know everything. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/22/19 Full Review Read all reviews

The Narrow Margin

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