The Narrow Margin
Overview
Richard Fleischer's THE NARROW MARGIN is a subtle film noir from 1952 which picked up Oscar nominations for writers Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. The story is set on a train running from Chicago to LA. Among the passengers, the former wife of a mobster, Mrs. Frankie Neil (Marie Windsor), travels under heavy police protection. The cops assigned to guard her include Walter Brown (Charles McGraw), a hard-bitten sergeant who fends off the attentions of various mobsters on the train who want Neil dead. On her way to LA to testify against her former husband, Neil needs all the protection she can get as the story unfolds. McGraw is well-suited to the role of Brown, as he frequently portrayed cops in films as diverse as Stanley Kramer's comedic IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD and the Fleischer-directed ARMORED CAR ROBBERY. Meanwhile, Windsor plays to type in her role, which neatly follows her chosen career path as the actress-du-jour in many noir movies of the period; the pinnacle of her career came via a turn in Stanley Kubrick's brooding crime-thriller THE KILLING. A mobster picture that draws on all the talents of its excellent cast, THE NARROW MARGIN is an often-unheralded entry into the canon of 1950s crime flicks.
Awards:
Main Cast & Crew:
Richard Fleischer - Director
Gordon Gebert
Paul Maxey
Mike Lally
Don Dillaway
George Sawaya
Tony Merrill
Howard Mitchell
Milton Kibbee
Don Haggerty
Johnny Lee
Details
- Format: DVD (Manufactured on Demand, Mono Sound)
- Run Time: 71
- Color Format: B&W
- UPC: 888574105518
- Genre: DRAMA
- Rating: Not Rated
- Release Date: December 2014
Movie Reviews
Reviews:
"A minor classic and a huge hit on a tiny investment, the film got an Oscar nomination for its story." - 07/15/2005 USA Today, p.6E
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