Narrow Margin **** (1990, Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James B Sikking, J T Walsh, M Emmet Walsh, Harris Yulin) – Classic Movie Review 5,908

Gene Hackman and Anne Archer star in the thrillingly exciting 1990 American neo-noir action thriller film Narrow Margin, reworking the 1952 RKO classic.

‘It will take you to the edge of suspense.’

Director Peter Hyams’s ultra-suspense 1990 thriller film 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. He changes the characters, and the setting from the Super Chief route to the Canadian Rockies as US rail travel was less popular in 1990 than 1952.

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 neo-noir mystery thriller film 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 extremely 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.

It was released in the US by TriStar Pictures on September 21, 1990.

It is the first of two re-imagined RKO films by Hyams, followed by Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009).

Narrow Margin is directed by Peter Hyams, runs 97 minutes, is made by Carolco Pictures, is released by TriStar Pictures (US) and Guild (UK), 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.

The cast

The cast are Gene Hackman as Deputy District Attorney Robert Caulfield, Anne Archer as Carol Hunnicut, James B Sikking as Nelson, J T Walsh as Michael Tarlow, M Emmet Walsh as Det Sgt Dominick Benti, Susan Hogan as Kathryn Weller, Nigel Bennett as Jack Wootton, J A Preston as Chief Deputy District Attorney Martin Larner, Kevin McNulty as James Dahlbeck, B A ‘Smitty’ Smith as Keller, Harris Yulin as Leo Watts, and Codie Lucas Wilbee as Nicholas.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,908

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com