Skip to main content

Movie: The Narrow Margin

Film noir staple Charles McGraw stars as hard-boiled cop Walter Brown, who's assigned to transport a mobster's moll (played to perfection by Marie Windsor) from Chicago to Los Angeles -- where she's set to testify before the grand jury. Naturally, danger turns up on the train in the form of syndicate goons sent to silence the witness; trouble is, they have no idea what she looks like. Richard Fleischer helmed this fast-paced crime thriller.

 Could have been so much better.  A female cop is acting as the gangster's moll.  Walter Brown doesn't know it, and he treats her like a criminal.  Then . . . it all comes out and she is killed.  Should be quite a moral awakening, but her death happens and then is totally ignored.  In its place we get a coming romance between the real gangster's moll (who really wanted no part of the mob) and our cop.  Weak ending after a terrific set-up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oppenheimer . . . film

 Solid opening 30 minutes (we're treating this like a mini-series).  O's involvement with left-wing causes . . . rift with Einstein (O thinks of him as over-the-hill and Einstein knows it.)  First splitting of atom.  Lawrence Lab in Berkeley--Lawrence practical applied physics . . . not O's strength.  Main actor is from Peaky Blinders.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Master Chapter 2

February 1895 (Alice died in 1892) Money problems, jealousy of Wilde; time spent with Lord Wolseley1; off to Ireland to lick his wounds; Irish unrest--Irish landlords boycott all social events; much time spent with manservant Hammond (homosexual attraction again); fancy dress ball, appalling to James, who is only happy in company of Hammond, though Hammond remains a servant and no more; little girl alone on the grounds--inspiration for Turn of the Screw?; conflict with Webster who alludes to Wilde's successful play and HJ's failure; Wolseley was an  Anglo-Irish  officer in the  British Army . He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the  Crimean War , the  Indian Mutiny , China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his  Ashanti  campaign (18...
Post a Comment
Read more