The Narrow Margin

1952

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Thriller

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 89% · 13 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 89% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.6/10 10 9792 9.8K

hitman widow telegram overweight man police protection blonde

Plot summary

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Director

Top cast

Don Beddoe Photo
Don Beddoe as Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes
Harry Harvey Photo
Harry Harvey as Train Conductor
George Chandler Photo
George Chandler as Accomplice Running Newsstand
Franklin Parker Photo
Franklin Parker as Telegraph Attendant
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
656 MB
1280*934
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 11 min
Seeds 6
1.19 GB
1480*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 11 min
Seeds 26

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bmacv 8 / 10

A dark ride that's maybe the best passenger-train thriller of them all

Trains have it all over ships and planes when it comes to creating a microcosm. On an airplane, everybody's crammed together; nobody can sneak on or leave (except by parachute or defenestration). An ocean liner has its private staterooms and public spaces, but, again, is an island, entire onto itself. But trains stop regularly to take on and disgorge passengers, and they run along their fixed and earthbound course, with windows looking out on rivers and highways, at big cities at high noon and small towns in the dead of night. And so they've always been the preferred vehicle for suspense, with countless thrillers using the rails as their setting. One of the tautest and most toothsome, in its modest, low-budget way, is Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin. It opens in Chicago, where a pair of Los Angeles police detectives are to escort the widow (Marie Windsor) of a recently slain gang leader back to the coast to testify before a grand jury. She's a hard case (`a 60-cent special...poison under the gravy'), and guarding her is a dangerous job. Sure enough, one of the cops takes a fatal bullet in the stairway of her low-rent apartment house (she shows scant sympathy). Windsor's finally smuggled aboard the train, in a Pullman car's locked compartment adjoining that of her custodian Charles McGraw. Almost certainly, one or more mobsters followed her. It's up to McGraw to smoke them out before they kill Windsor, who knows too much. But he slowly learns that some vital information has been deliberately kept from him....Fleischer makes inventive use of the jostling in the cramped passageways – and of the all but vanished rituals of club cars and dining cars. He packs the train with seasoned character actors, notable among them Jacqueline White, Paul (`Nobody loves a fat man') Maxie, and Don Beddoe. The closely worked script, by Earl Fenton (based on a novel by Martin Goldsmith, who also penned the original material for Detour), doesn't stint on gaudy patter for them to spout (it's a moveable feast of salty epigrams). Best of all, The Narrow Margin offers the addictive Marie Windsor her meatiest role, showcasing her tough-gal talents. Rolling her huge and extraordinary eyes, she aims her exhaled smoke like a stream of deadly gas and hard-boils her lines into hand grenades (to McGraw: `This train's headed straight for the cemetery. But there's another train coming along – a gravy train. Let's get on it.'). It's one of Hollywood's more perplexing secrets why Windsor toiled exclusively, with the possible exception of her Sherry Peatty in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, in the B-movie ghetto. But she helped make that ghetto the liveliest part of Tinsel Town.
Reviewed by ReelCheese 9 / 10

An Overlooked Classic

Here's an overlooked classic that more than holds its own over five decades after its release. Two-fisted detective Charles McGraw must protect a crucial witness (Marie Windsor) on a train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles. Since keeping a secret is hard, bad guys who aren't so keen on Windsor's testimony are also on board -- and will stop at nothing to silence her. Further complexities are added to an already tense situation when the hit men confuse another passenger as their target."The Narrow Margin" is known as a B movie, but you'd never know it from watching it. True, the film isn't flashy, but it does make the most out of everything it has. The story is original and full of twists, the suspense terrific and the acting memorable. With its creative take on what should be a simple story, and with its colorful characters and sharp direction, it's all more than a bit reminiscent of the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock. You won't regret picking this one up now that it's available on DVD.
Reviewed by Dire_Straits 9 / 10

Perhaps the best B movie of all time?

I'm a huge Charles McGraw fan. Every film he had a large part in, he excels and makes the film better.Having seen this film 4 or 5 times, my respect for it has grown over the years.The cinematography isn't perfect - the film probably could have benefited by staying dark and grainy as it seems to be in the early, night scenes.The taut train scenes seem too bright, but there's nothing wrong with it, simply my preference. A darker train would have made for a more sinister film. Even so, there's plenty of excitement.The crackling dialogue between Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor is consistently sharp. Seriously, you will have a hard time finding anything more bitter than those two. I'm not sure any other male-female could have made the dialogue (which in a 1950's way is almost corny) come off so terse, as they continuously bark at each other. Someone needs to count the number of times McGraw tells Windsor to "Shut up!".The film has some exciting twists and turns; you'll enjoy each one.Great story, solid performances all the way around. This is a FUN movie.
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