DVD Review
The Narrow Margin , starring Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline
White, 1952
Okay, let’s go through the drill.
If you’re a cop and your partner gets killed by some scum hoodlum you’re
supposed to do something about it, something serious and something final. It
doesn’t matter tough cop or soft desk job cop, mean street cop or downtown swells
cop, on the take or just happy to cadge and off-hand coffee and cruller as part
of the day’s work you are supposed to do something about it. Hell, even private
dicks know and honor that part of the drill. Just ask Sam Spade about how he
did right by his partner, the fallen Miles Archer, when a dame tried to get all
squirrelly on him. And so you know right from the get-go in this film, a black and
white B-film noir, The Narrow Margin, that tough
Detective Brown is going to go through hell and high water to avenge the death
of his partner, no questions asked.
The reason that Brown’s fallen partner needs that avenging is that he fell
afoul of the syndicate boys, and I don’t have to tell you what syndicate, when
they were trying to waste a dame who wanted to “sing” before and L. A. grand
jury, sing loud too. See this dame, this gangster s moll (okay, okay wife), Mrs.
Neall, was ready to sing after her dear
hubby ran afoul of the syndicate boys and she wanted to get some revenge of her
own, and maybe some dough or protection too. The problem was this frail (sorry
I got carried away in the crime noir night) was located in Chicago and so
needed an escort out west. That is where Detective Brown and his partner came
to the rescue. But the syndicate didn’t get to be the syndicate by letting
stuff like snitching go unpunished so they go after her in their own way. And
that is how our tough cop’s partner got wasted and why he would have many
sleepless nights until he got square with his deceased partner.
Fortunately Mrs. Neall and the detective were able to get away from the
gun fight alive and by various subterfuges were able to get on the train (yah, this
is early 1950s stuff when they apparently were in no hurry to get star witnesses
ferried across the country quickly)and head west. The beauty of this escort
service though was that the guys after Mrs. Neall were clueless about what she looked
like and so our detective was able to use that fact to his advantage. By the
way this Mrs. Neall was nothing but poison, nothing but a frail (sorry, again) from
the wrong side of the tracks, strictly from cheap street, although maybe good for
a one-night stand under the sheets. The banter between the pair on this trip is
classic tough guy- gun moll talk which has an oddly sexual tinged aspect thrown
in with her alternatively trying to seduce Brown and throw him under the train
(not literally, okay). I took her whole routine as her just working her way to the
next safe harbor after the demise of the late Mr. Neall.
Well, needless to say Detective Brow get Mrs. Neall to L.A. although not
without lots of drama on the train. Stuff that would make you glad to grab the
nearest airplane flight despite the cost. Like I said before the syndicate didn’t get to
be the syndicate by letting loose cannons roll around. So they moved heaven and
earth, brought in a bevy of gunsels to finish up the job botched in Chi town. The
drama of that pursuit (and the tough guy and gal patter) drives this one along
its merry way. Oh yah, and a little twist in the story line involving a good
looking woman, a blonde, that Detective Brown keeps bumping into on the train
too.
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