THE NARROW MARGIN
US, 1952, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Mc Graw, Marie Windsor.
Directed by Richard Fleischer.
The Narrow Margin is a brief and effective R.K.O. thriller of the early '50s. The cast, usually in supporting features, is excellent, especially Marie Windsor in the unsympathetic role as the policewoman. Charles Mc Graw makes a tough effective hero. The film has a strong screenplay, uses a train journey effectively and is directed by Richard Fleischer, at the beginning of his career, who was to go on to make a wide range of interesting films from Compulsion to Barabbas to Fantastic Voyage, The Boston Strangler and epics like Tora! Tora! Tora! and Dr. Doolittle.
1. Competent and effective thriller? Its reputation? Effect?
2. Production values? Black and white photography? Special effects? Musical score?
3. The title: the fact, the ironies?
4. The conventions of the police thriller and the way they were used? The twists in the plot? The shifting of audience perspectives and judgments about Mrs. Neal and about Brown?
5. The conventions of the basic situation? Brown and his commission? Mrs. Neal and the list of gangsters? The need for protection and her transport? The role of the police? The menace of the gangsters and their violence? The train journey and its difficulties?
6. Brown as rugged hero? The immediate dislike of Mrs. Neal and his reaction to her? His companion being killed and his grief? Dedication to his work? The encounter with the gangsters, the possibility of bribes? The tensions of the trip? The encounter with Mrs. Sinclair, Tommy's reaction to him and exposing him? The taunts of the policewoman? His tenderness towards Mrs. Neal? The fat railway official? The discovery of the policewoman's identity too late? Protecting the true Mrs. Neal? A satisfying ending? A quick portrait of an average policeman and his integrity?
7. The initial reaction to Mrs. Neal? Her appearance? The shooting of the policeman? Her cheap style, language? Taunting Brown? The trip, playing the records loudly? The encounter with the pursuing gangsters, her trying to shoot? The irony of her being a decoy policewoman? The effectiveness of her acting? An effective performance?
8. Mrs. Sinclair, her attractiveness, ordinariness, Tommy and his encounter with Brown? Social encounters? The irony of her revealing herself as Mrs. Neal? The danger? The gangster taking Tommy, Brown using the reflections in the train window? Her finally going to the police, her determination to walk after avoiding the reporters?
9. The minor characters: the railway guards, the fat railway policeman and his effectiveness? The presentation of American police?
10. The background of the Mafia and gangsters? Their violence?
11. A film of the '50s and its effectiveness subsequently? Taut filmmaking?
