The Narrow Margin
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Movie Reviews of The Narrow Margin
Movie Review: A fine example of Film Noir
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been while since I watched this DVD, but I have to say it should be in the top 10 of best Film Noir movies of all time.
Love Charles McGraw in the flick, what an under appreciated actor !!
Movie Review: "The Narrow Margin (1952) ... Charles McGraw ... RKO Radio Pictures Film Noir"
Summary: 4 Stars
RKO Radio Pictures present "THE NARROW MARGIN" (1952) (70 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White & Queenie Leonard --- Directed by Richard Fleischer and released in May 4, 1952, our story line and film, When a mobsters wife decides to testify against his evil deeds she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Now that he's coming to trial she has to be escourted across country via train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown and his partner are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail ... this film has the distinction of being considered the best "B" movie of all time - fast paced, well acted and impressively shot in claustrophobic settings ... Academy Award Nomination for Best Motion Picture Story.
Under Richard Fleischer (Director), Stanley Crea Rubin (Producer), Earl Felton (Screenwriter), Earl Fenton (Screenwriter), Martin G. Goldsmith (Screenwriter), Jack Leonard (Screenwriter), George E. Diskant (Cinematographer), Robert Swink (Editor), Albert S. D'Agostino (Art Director), Jack Okey (Art Director), Darrell Silvera (Set Designer), William L. Stevens (Set Designer) - - - - the cast includes Charles McGraw (Walter Brown), Marie Windsor (Mrs. Neall), Jacqueline White (Ann Sinclair), Gordon Geberl (Tommy Sinclair), Queenie Leonard (Mrs. Troll), David Clarke (Kemp), Peter Virgo (Densel), Don Beddoe (Gus Forbes), Paul Maxey (Jennings), George Sawava (Reporter), Franklin Parker (Telegraph Attendant), Mike Lally (Taxi Driver), Napoleon Whiting (Redcap), Jasper Weldon (Porter), Don Haggerty (Detective Wilson), Harry Harvey (Train Conductor), Donald Dillaway (Reporter), Howard Mitchell (Train Conductor), Tony Merrill (Officer Allen), Milt Kibbee (Tenant), Will Lee (Newsstand Owner), Johnny Lee (Waiter) - - - - - Film noir has sources not only in cinema but other artistic mediums as well...the low-key lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode are in the tradition of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, techniques using high contrasts of light and dark developed by 15th- and 16th-century painters associated with Mannerism and the Baroque...film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism, a cinematic movement of the 1910s and 1920s closely related to contemporaneous developments in theater, photography, painting, scultpture, and architecture...opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and, later, the threat of growing Nazi power led to the emigration of many important film artists working in Germany who had either been directly involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners...Directors such as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, and Michael Curtiz brought dramatic lighting techniques and a psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène with them to Hollywood, where they would make some of the most famous of classic noirs. Lang's 1931 masterwork, the German M, is among the first major crime films of the sound era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, one in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). M was also the occasion for the first star performance by Peter Lorre, who would go on to act in several formative American noirs of the classic era ... featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten film noir gems
SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Charles McGraw (aka: Charles Butters)
Date of Birth: 10 May 1914 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 30 July 1980 - Studio City, California
2. Marie Windsor (aka: Emily Marie Bertelsen)
Date of Birth: 11 December 1919 - Marysvale, Utah
Date of Death: 10 December 2000 - Beverly Hills, California
3. Richard Fleischer (Director)
Date of Birth: 8 December 1916 - Brooklyn, New York, New York
Date of Death: 25 March 2006 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!
Total Time: 70 min on DVD ~ Turner Home Video ~ (7/05/2005)
Movie Review: A Fast-Paced, Taut B Movie With Great Pulp-Noir Dialogue
Summary: 4 Stars
"What about this dame," says policeman Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe) to his partner, Detective Sergeant Walter Brown (Charles McGraw), who has already tagged her type without ever meeting her. The dame's a gun moll widow of a gangster. They're in a taxi on their way to pick her up, escort her to the Chicago train station and protect her from mob killers on the train until they reach Los Angeles. She's going to testify before a grand jury and blow the lid off the mob.
"A dish," Brown says.
"What kind of a dish?"
"She's a 60-cent special. Cheap, flashy, and strictly poison under the gravy."
"Amazing," his partner says. "And how do you know all this?"
"Well, she was married to a hoodlum, wasn't she?" Brown says. "What kind of a dame would marry a hood?"
The dame they're going to protect, Mrs. Frankie Neall (Marie Windsor), is selfish, not quite a slut, and deeply aware she may not make it to Los Angeles alive. She and Brown instantly dislike each other. Before they can even get out the door of her apartment, the hoods make a play for her but succeed only in killing Forbes. The killers don't see what she looks like, but they see Brown before they run. Brown gets her to the train and into their compartment. For the next day and a half, members of the mob try to bribe him and find and kill her. Brown knows who a couple of the killers are, but what about the woman who spills a drink on him? Or the fat man? Or the smoothie who shows up wearing a white carnation, gloves and a homburg? What about the auto that's racing along side the train to reach the next station when the train stops for a few minutes? Brown is alone, feeling guilty over the death of his partner, protecting a woman he detests, knowing that killers are after them. "My partner's dead and it's my fault," he snarls at her. "He's dead and you're alive. Some exchange."
This is one of the grade B great noirs from the tail end of Hollywood's noir period. The story line moves as fast and relentlessly forward as the train the plot takes place in. The movie isn't long and not a moment is wasted on exposition or character background. The whole set up for the plot is covered in a few lines of dialogue and a glimpse of a newspaper headline. There's no score, just the sounds of the wheels on the track, doors opening and closing, a train whistle. Almost all the movie is shot on the train, and is confined to the compartments, the club car, the dining car, the tight hallways. There's no place to get away, and the process of elimination will sooner or later bring the hoods to the compartment where Brown has hidden Mrs. Neall. False leads and misdirection keep you on your toes. The photography is exceptional, from the death of Forbes in a shadowy stairway to the reflection of action on the windows of the train.
Charles McGraw, a tough looking actor, plays Brown, and Brown is a tough cop. McGraw has a gravelly voice and a face that looks like it's taken a few punches. Marie Windsor matches him in the no illusions department. Windsor, with her sullen eyes, almost always played bad girls. The two of them snarl at each other, slam doors in each other's face and get off some great lines of pulp dialogue. The tension between the two of them provides a lot of the film's energy. The other actors bring dimension to what could have been stock threats.
The one weakness is the death of a major character, who, once dead, simply disappears without thought or regret. We've become invested in the character and it's a little unsettling to have the person dealt with so emotionlessly.
This is a fast-paced noir with some great, pulp-noir dialogue by screenwriter Earl Felton, a lot of tension on the train and enough suspicious developments to keep you guessing. If you've seen the 1990 remake, Narrow Margin, be prepared for some surprises. The DVD picture looks great. There are no extras except a commentary track by William Friedkin and an old, edited audio interview with Richard Fleischer.
Movie Review: Suspense within the Confines of a Train. Plus Great Hard-boiled Dialogue.
Summary: 4 Stars
Los Angeles police detectives Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) and Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe) are responsible for escorting a gangster's widow from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she is to testify before a grand jury. On their way to pick her up, the two men discuss their expectations of "what kind of dame would marry a hood". Gus says, "All kinds", while Walter thinks Mrs. Neall must be a "60-cent special. Cheap, flashy, and strictly poison under the gravy." And Mrs. Neall (Marie Windsor) seems to be exactly as he predicted. But they don't even to get out of her apartment building before an attempt on Mrs. Neall's life kills Gus. Bitter and resentful of his partner's life being sacrificed for a woman he estimates as unworthy and unscrupulous, Walter accompanies Mrs. Neall onto the train bound for L.A. and hides her in an adjoining compartment. The trip quickly turns into a game of cat and mouse, hide and seek, between Walter and several hoods (David Clarke, Peter Brocco) who want to obtain the pay-off list in Mrs. Neall's possession or kill her. Walter's worries are mounting, as another passenger, Ann Sinclair (Jaqueline White), may have been mistaken for his charge, because he became friendly with her.
"The Narrow Margin"'s strengths are its snappy, clever dialogue and closed spaces. Marie Windsor gives the film's memorable performance as smart-mouthed, self-interested Mrs. Neall. She has all the best lines, and the film would be worth watching for her alone. Director Richard Fleischer has taken great care to create the feeling and appearance of a moving train on a studio set, and he makes good use of that claustrophobic environment in creating tension. When the characters are limited in what they can do, that, in itself, becomes a force propelling the action forward and focusing our attention on behavior. In the film's most famous scene, the camera gets down and dirty with the characters as Walter and thug Joseph Kemp brawl in a small train compartment. This scene is reputed to be the inspiration for the most famous train fight scene in cinematic history in the James Bond "From Russia with Love" -and it immediately brings that film to mind. The scene in "The Narrow Margin" is quite effective in its own right, though, and is certainly a memorable moment in the annals of train films. The action of the "The Narrow Margin" relies upon the idea that none of the characters know what Mrs. Neall looks like, which requires some suspension of disbelief, as she surely must have been seen and photographed with her late husband. But "The Narrow Margin" has film noir's archetypal great camera angles and beautiful low-key lighting; quick, clever dialogue; and identity confusion that creates some moral confusion. All that in only 1 hour and 12 minutes.
The DVD (Warner Brothers 2005): This is a good print of the film. There is an occasional speck, but no significant flaws, and the sound is fine. Bonus features are a theatrical trailer (2 minutes) and an audio commentary by William Friedkin -director of a couple neo-noirs and "The Exorcist"- and director Richard Fleischer. The comments from Richard Fleischer are few and far between and were presumably taken from an archived interview. Fleischer talks about the characteristics of film noir as he saw it. William Friedkin discusses story, actors, characters, the film's visual style, and film noir in general (a subject on which he is definitely not an expert). Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, and Spanish.
Movie Review: HEY, CHARLIE--NEXT TIME DRIVE TO L.A. AND PUT THE FAT GUY IN THE BACK SEAT
Summary: 4 Stars
Nice, taut little B-noir is worth a sit-down. Intriguing plot as detective has to escort dead crime boss' wife cross-country with a "trio" of killers in pursuit---and the translocation [Chicago to L.A.] takes place on a locomotive. Perrenial character actor Charles McGraw, best recognized by baby-boomers by his frequently-sighted face rather than name, plays the detective. He is usually spotted in numerous 40s to 60s films playing rough characters, whether on the good side [THE DEFIANT ONES, 1958] or the bad [BORDER INCIDENT, 1949]. However, he also procured roles in two all-time Hollywood classics---Kubrick's SPARTACUS [1960] and Hitchcock's THE BIRDS [1963]. His face and voice are distinctive, the former seemingly chisled from stone with some of the gravel lodging in his throat. McGraw here has a rare leading role and produces a noteworthy tour de force. Vigorous repartee between him and the dame he is guarding, played annoyingly well by scene-thief Marie Windsor [remember her double-cross of Elisha Cook, Jr in Kubrick's THE KILLING, 1956] and cat-and-mouse game between him and one gangster is central and fun. Interesting camera movement through the train cars and frequent encounters with a portly, occlusive 'passenger' adds to the claustrophobic sense of urgency. This, plus the scene of a car with unknown characters paralleling the train gave this a mild Hitchcockian flavor. I admit I was caught off guard by the surprise twist near the end. The way McGraw stops the hired gun at the climax was novel & neat. Kudos to the unheralded McGraw for a terrific, bristling performance, his persona staying with me the next day after watching this. The always-petulant Windsor---one of the great femme fatales of noir---whose castigating eyes and patulous mouth always seem to fly out at the viewer, also excellent, as usual. Film, at only 71 minutes, could have had a few more minutes of on-board fun, and a less rushed, flat ending but all is forgiven as the budget was obviously sparse. Still a genre classic. No-nonsense direction by Richard Fleischer who worked with hall-of-famers Orson Welles [COMPULSION, 1959], Charlton Heston [SOYLENT GREEN, 1973], George C Scott [THE NEW CENTURIONS, 1972], Henry Fonda [THE BOSTON STRANGLER, 1968] and Kirk Douglas [20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, 1954] but whose best film may have been when he directed Anthony Quinn in the unheralded but profound epic BARABBAS [1961]. NARROW MARGIN, however, with its dearth of time, money and having no major stars, may have been his best directing job.