The Narrow Margin (1952)

The Narrow Margin
Directed by Richard Fleischer
1952/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing

[box] Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: What about this dame, Mr. Crystal Ball?

Walter Brown: A dish.

Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: What kind of a dish?

Walter Brown: Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy. [/box]

Two L.A. detectives are assigned to escort a gangster’s widow on a train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she is to testify before a grand jury in a corruption investigation.  The crime syndicate will stop at nothing to stop the testimony and retrieve the payoff list.  Unfortunately they do not know what the widow looks like.  With Charles McGraw as a detective, Marie Windsor as the woman he is guarding and Jacqueline Ward as a mother on the train.

This nifty little “B” noir was filmed in only 13 days.  Marie Windsor, “Queen of the B’s”, is fantastic as the sexy thorn in Charles McGraw’s side. The dialogue is priceless. This is 71 minutes of pure fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKQKm-S3cmY

Trailer