The Narrow Margin (1952)

The Narrow Margin, an RKO Radio Pictures film noir released in 1952, is considered by some to be the best B-movie ever made.  I am not an expert on low budget films or film noir (let alone low budget film noir), so I won't even touch that claim.  But I will say that I loved this movie.  It's got a great cast and a sharp script - and did I mention it's set almost entirely on a train?  Love.

The film stars Charles McGraw as detective Walter Brown, Marie Windsor as Mrs. Frankie Neill and Jacqueline White as Ann Sinclair.


The film follows Walter Brown (McGraw), an L.A. detective who travels to Chicago to collect Mrs. Neill (Windsor) - the widow of a recently murdered mob boss - and take her back to Los Angeles where she will testify against her husband, incriminating other L.A. mobsters while she's at it.  There's one problem, though. A pair of gangsters are after her with only one objective: to silence her - permanently - before the train reaches California.

Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor

This film sucked me in from the very first scene.  Detective Brown is everything I imagine an L.A. cop in the fifties would have been - hard, cynical and determined.  You feel how little regard he has for Mrs. Neill - he makes it very plain that he sees her as nothing but trash in heels - but you know he will do everything he can to insure she makes it to California safely because he's a good cop.

Marie Windsor plays the perfect gangster moll in Mrs. Neill.  She's unpolished, smart-mouthed and concerned only for herself and her own safety.  I don't know how I've managed to miss Marie Windsor before now - she's fantastic and apparently she was film noir's leading lady for many years.  Making a note to seek out her other movies!

After Detective Brown safely deposits Mrs. Neill into her cabin on the train, he later meets and befriends a young mother named Ann Sinclair (portrayed by the lovely Jacqueline White) and her incorrigible son Tommy (Gordon Gebert, the same adorable little boy from Holiday Affair, one of my essential Christmas movies).

The Narrow Margin was directed by Richard Fleischer and the story, written by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story.  The film also stars David Clark, Peter Brocco and Peter Virgo as our villains and Paul Maxey as the portly train passenger who seems to make an appearance at the most inconvenient times.

I can't reveal much more without giving away the surprises, but seriously, if you like film noir, you shouldn't miss this one.  It has everything!  Superb acting, crisp dialogue, clever cinematography, fist fights, beautiful women and a quick, twisty plot that never lets up.

And did I mention the train?