Narrow Margin **** (1990, Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James B Sikking, J T Walsh, M Emmet Walsh, Harris Yulin) – Classic Movie Review 5908

‘It will take you to the edge of suspense.’ Director Peter Hyams’s ultra-suspense 1990 thriller Narrow Margin is a thrillingly exciting version for the Nineties of the 1952 RKO classic The Narrow Margin about a Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney (a cop in the original) and the key witness he is escorting to a mobster’s trial being stalked by killers on a train.

This time it comes complete with Gene Hackman, Anne Archer and a new plot by writer-director Hyams that will surprise fans of the original.

LA publishing house editor Carol Hunnicut (Anne Archer) goes on a blind date with lawyer Michael Tarlow (J T Walsh), who has made the mistake of embezzling money from mobster Leo Watts (Harris Yulin). Carol accidentally witnesses Tarlow’s murder by Watts’s hitman and flees to Canada. Deputy district attorney Robert Caulfield (Hackman) is sent to guard Carol and he accompanies her on a train travelling through a remote part of Canada to Vancouver. Three Mob hitmen board the train: they know him, but they do not know her.

This fast-paced, glossy, bristling, edge-of-seat mystery has a high quota of thrills, romance and danger, with great action scenes on the roof of the train. And it is most energetically acted and exteremely sleekly made.

Director Hyams, who also lensed the movie, based his screenplay on Earl Fenton Jr’s 1952 screenplay for The Narrow Margin. This is an excellent remake of a brilliant original.

Hackman, Archer are excellent, and there is a strong, on-form support cast – James B Sikking, J T Walsh, M Emmet Walsh, Susan Hogan, Nigel Bennett, J A Preston and Harris Yulin.

Narrow Margin is directed by Peter Hyams, runs 97 minutes, is made by Carolco, is released by Guild, is written by Peter Hyams, is shot by Peter Hyams, is produced by Jonathan A Zimbert, is scored by Bruce Broughton and is designed by Joel Schiller.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5908

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