Miscellaneous Reviews Festivals Lists Interviews
#
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Here


web analytics

The Films of Richard Fleischer

Child of Divorce

Banjo

So This Is New York

Bodyguard

The Clay Pigeon

Follow Me Quietly

Trapped

Armed Car Robbery

The Narrow Margin (March 20/18)

The Narrow Margin follows Charles McGraw's tough-as-nails detective Walter Brown as he's tasked with protecting a mob witness (Marie Windsor's Frankie Neall) during a cross-country train ride, with complications inevitably ensuing as several assassins make their way aboard the locomotive and embark upon a methodical search for Windsor's sassy figure. It's a stripped-down premise that's employed to watchable yet far-from-enthralling effect by director Richard Fleischer, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard, delivers a deliberately-paced thriller that's ultimately unable to sustain one's interest for the duration of its short (yet somehow not short enough) running time of 71 minutes - with the film's wheel-spinning midsection contributing heavily to its less-than-gripping atmosphere. There is, nevertheless, little doubt that The Narrow Margin does boast a small handful of admittedly captivating sequences, including a fairly riveting interlude in which a slick villain attempts to bribe McGraw's straight-and-narrow figure into giving up Frankie. It's clear, too, that the movie benefits from McGraw's stirring performance and the ongoing emphasis on appreciatively hard-boiled bits of dialogue (eg Neall's character is referred to as "cheap, flashy; strictly poison under the gravy"), while the comparatively spellbinding final stretch, which boasts an impressively unexpected twist, ensures that the whole thing concludes on a positive note - which cements The Narrow Margin's place as a passable noir effort that could (and should) have been so much better.

out of

The Happy Time

Arena

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Violent Saturday

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

Bandido!

Between Heaven and Hell

The Vikings

Compulsion

These Thousand Hills

Crack in the Mirror

Barabbas

Fantastic Voyage

Doctor Dolittle

The Boston Strangler

Che!

10 Rillington Place

The Last Run

See No Evil

The New Centurions

Soylent Green

The Don is Dead

The Spikes Gang

Mr. Majestyk

Mandingo

The Incredible Sarah

The Prince and the Pauper

Ashanti

The Jazz Singer

Tough Enough

Amityville 3-D

Click here for review.

Conan the Destroyer

Red Sonja

Million Dollar Mystery

© David Nusair