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

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin . . . finished

 Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world.  Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way.  Plot is involved but sensible.  Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment.  The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview.  He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good.   Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child. 
Post a Comment
Read more

The Secret, Book and Scone Society

Cozy mystery with a "women are superior creatures" underpinning. The four women have all had their struggles, which we will learn about one-by-one, but they all remain/emerge wiser, kinder, smarter, etc. than the men in the novel, most of whom are corrupt, narrow-minded, unfeeling and potentially violent. (Nora's encounter with the paramedic-hunk is the exception, though it occurs to me that he may be the murderer.) Even Estelle, who uses sex to get what she wants, is portrayed positively.  The men are comically manipulated by her curves.  In one scene, she goes skinny-dipping with a married man but is rescued by her buddies before she actually has sex with the guy. Nora, our main character, is told by her female friends that she is beautiful despite her scars. No male says this to Nora because males are just too crass to see beyond surface beauty.  I hope I'm wrong and the book is more nuanced. If not, then this author is a one-and-done writer for me.
Post a Comment
Read more