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The Narrow Margin (1952)
In director Richard Fleischer's fast-moving noirish
crime-drama (with the tagline: "A Fortune If They Seal Her Lips...
A Bullet If They Fail!"), followed by director Peter Hyams'
inferior remake Narrow Margin (1990) starring Gene Hackman
and Anne Archer - it told about a number of mobster assassins who
were targeting a widowed gun moll and grand jury witness, who was
being transported on a confining, cross-country Golden West Limited
train from Chicago to Los Angeles, with a claustrophobic, tense atmosphere
- there were surprise character twists and secret identities:
- the plotline: the escort of widowed gun moll and
grand jury witness Mrs. Frankie Neall (Marie Windsor) by incorruptible,
hard-boiled Detective Sgt. Walter Brown (Charles McGraw); the witness
had information - a purported list of payoffs - that she was going
to divulge at an LA hearing
- in the opening scene - Det. Brown and Sergeant Gus
Forbes (Don Beddoe) took a taxi from the train station to pick up
the dislikeable female at her apartment hideout to take her to the
train; they discussed what the woman Mrs. Frankie Neall might be
like (Brown: "Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison
under the gravy"); as they were coming down the stairs into
the apartment's foyer, Forbes was gunned down by mobster assassin
Densel (Peter Virgo), identified by a fur-collared coat
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Sgt. Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe) Just Before Being
Murdered
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Detective Sgt. Walter Brown (Charles McGraw)
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Mrs. Frankie Neall
(Marie Windsor)
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- on the moving train, where Detective Brown was attempting
to hide Mrs. Neall in an adjoining sleeper cabin/compartment, two
other assassins were circling around trying to locate and kill
his subpoened grand jury witness: Joseph Kemp (David Clarke) and
Vincent Yost (Peter Brocco)
Mobster Assassins
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Joseph Kemp
(David Clarke)
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Vincent Yost
(Peter Brocco)
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- the interactions between Detective Brown and ill-tempered
Mrs. Neall, both of whom took an instant disliking to each other:
(Brown: "You make me sick to my stomach." Neall: "Well,
use your own sink. And let me know when the target practice starts!")
- the vicious fight scene in a cramped men's room between
assassin Joseph Kemp and Detective Brown
- further complications when Detective Brown became
acquainted with another woman on the train - a golden-haired, sweet-natured
mother named Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White) with a precocious, overly
observant son Tommy (Gordon Gebert) in tow and an older nanny, Mrs.
Troll (Queenie Leonard); Brown worried that the mobsters might mistake
her for his witness and kill her; Brown's loyalties were also tested
by the DA via the decoy Mrs. Neall and assassin Vincent Yost to see
if he would accept bribes of $25-30K to give up his protected witness: "You
have her, we want her, how much?...Point her out and turn the other
way. You go through the motions of guarding her until the accident
occurs." Brown responded: "I'm not interested...not at
any price"; the detective was warned: "We'll get her whether
you give her to us or not, so don't take too long. It would be a
shame if you missed your opportunity"
- Brown was aided by rotund railroad detective/agent
Sam Jennings (Paul Maxey) (originally thought to be one of the assassins),
who handcuffed gangster Kemp and detained him after Brown beat him
up; however, at a train stop in La Junta, Colorado, assassin Densel
surreptitiously boarded the coach, traded places with Yost, freed
Kemp, and knocked Jennings unconscious; the two mobsters discovered
Mrs. Neall in Brown's attached cabin, and in a dramatic scene, as
she reached for a gun in her purse, Densel shot her in the back
- the twist revelation that Mrs. Frankie Neall was actually
a decoy -- a policewoman from Internal Affairs named Sarah Maggs
- who was shockingly killed; Brown's love interest - Ann Sinclair
- was revealed to be the real Mrs. Frankie Neill; Ann described how
she had found her divorced mobster husband's payoff list, and already
mailed it to the DA; Brown reacted vehemently: "I've been played
for a sucker!"
- the climactic scene in which Ann Sinclair was seized
and held hostage by a mob hitman Densel; Brown used the reflection
of another train's window to gun down the hitman without compromising
her safety; Kemp fled and departed from the back of the train, but
a few minutes later was arrested as he was about to be picked up
by a getaway vehicle that had been trailing the train for many miles;
in the brief conclusion, Brown safely escorted Mrs. Sinclair off
the train
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The Pay-Off List
On the Train (l to r): Gangster Kemp, Det. Brown, and
Railroad Agent Sam Jennings
Mrs. Neill Seized - Reaching for Her Gun and Then
Shot In the Back
Mrs. Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White) - Ultimately
Revealed to Be The Real Grand Jury Witness
Protecting Mrs. Sinclair by Shooting Densel, Using
A Window Reflection
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