Plot: Publishing house editor Carol Hunnicutt (Anne Archer) has a problem: while on a blind date with friendly defense attorney Michael Tarlow (J.T. Walsh) she witnesses his brutal execution in his hotel suite at the hands of a hitman hired by top level mob boss Leo Watts (Harris Yulin) who discovered that Tarlow was skimming money from him on the side to pay off his own debts. Realizing that her life is now in grave danger, Carol attempts to erase any trace of her being at the hotel the evening of Tarlow’s murder and flees for her life.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Caufield (Gene Hackman) has made it his life’s mission to put Watts behind bars for his crimes but has never been able to get a conviction due to loopholes in the system and Watts being heavily connected. Now, the opportunistic Caufield sees a chance to shut down Watts for good when he learns that Hunnicutt was at the hotel the night of Tarlow’s brutal death. Traveling across Canada with police officer Dominick Benti in tow to her cabin, Caufield attempts to convince Carol to testify who stubbornly refuses just as gunfire tears through her cabin, killing Benti in the process. Realizing they’ve been tailed, Caufield escapes with his charge and heavily armed assassins in hot pursuit and is forced to board a train that will travel through Vancouver back toward U.S. lines.
Unfortunately for Caufield and Hunnicutt, the hired guns have also boarded the train and are determined to do what their boss has paid them for: eliminate any loose threads to the Tarlow ‘hit’. Now, for the next 24 hours, Caufield and Carol will be forced to put each other’s trust and life in the other’s hands as they attempt to outwit their pursuers before their mode of transportation reaches its final destination.
But with the odds stacked against them and barely any place to run or hide, their chances of survival may very well be in the ‘narrow margin’…
Hitchcockian element at its sweetest!
My first exposure to this film came a long time ago when I was in my teens staying at my grandma’s house and I usually liked to stay up late to catch any good late night movies. Then this gem just happened to come on T.B.S. and though it was edited for time and content, it was still a treat to watch and I was thoroughly impressed by what director Peter Hyams put together. Hyams is well known for his action/suspense films and the man really knows how to take the audience to the edge with his style of directing. It wasn’t until later on when I looked this movie up on IMDB.com that it was actually a remake of a 1952 classic of the same name, but truth be told this remake had a lot more going for it than the original I feel.
What made this movie so exciting was that it combined and borrowed lots of great elements that Alfred Hitchcock would utilize and throwing in some decent action sequences to really turn up the heat and keep the audience glued to the seat. Narrow Margin is like ‘Strangers on a Train’ meets ‘North by Northwest’ meets ‘Die Hard’ (except the good guy in this flick isn’t a macho tough man with a Beretta in his hand). It truly is a shame that this film doesn’t have much more recognition today than it did back then as I think this is one of Gene Hackman’s greatest roles next to playing Brill from Enemy of the State and Herod from The Quick and the Dead.
Everything in this film was top notch: magnificent cinematography in Canada’s beautiful wilderness, fantastic editing, a spine-tingling music score that’ll raise the hairs on the back of your neck, an excellent script with a simplistic plot that doesn’t try to overdo itself and plenty of suspense and hair-raising stunts (particularly the final fight sequence on the train itself) that’ll leave you breathless!
Why did I enjoy it?
Given that this is a remake (and we all know that remakes are sometimes a bad idea in today’s cinematic industry), I have to go out on a limb and say that this is one of many remakes I’ve seen that can hold a candle to the original. Peter Hyams was able to stick to the whole premise of danger on a train while adding a good action sequence or two in keeping up with the story for the adrenaline junkies watching.
The premise for the story is short, sweet and simple: Hackman’s deputy D.A. character sees a chance to lock up a notorious mobster but only if he can convince murder witness Carol to testify. His plans almost literally go up in smoke when hired guns shoot up the cabin Anne Archer’s character is staying in and though the two escape onto a train, they’re not out of the woods just yet: the killers have boarded and are searching every inch of the train until they find their target. Problem is, the bad guys have no clue what Carol looks like but they know who Caufield is and that he’s trying to safeguard a witness who can put their boss in the gas chamber if she talks.
The atmosphere of the movie has a claustrophobic feel to it given that the two lead characters have to remain in hiding onboard a moving train and must be very careful who they socialize with as anyone onboard the train could be mistaken for the bad guy’s target or worst yet, passengers could either be in cahoots with the assassins or could end up being an assassin themselves. These factors coupled with the inability to tell friend from foe really cranks up the suspense level to a huge ten and makes the audience ponder whether or not Caufield and Carol will survive the ordeal that they’re in.
The other element that drives the plot of this movie is the interaction between Hackman and Archer’s characters. Throughout the entire film, Hackman’s Caufield must do whatever he can to convince Archer’s character Carol to testify against a dangerous mobster who killed her blind date and Archer’s character is extremely stubborn but she’s strong-willed. She knows the odds are stacked against her and has no desire to be a stool pigeon as she knows it will get her killed and possibly her family put on the mobster’s hit list if she goes to stand trial. Anne Archer really shined in this film along with Hackman and the thing that I enjoyed the most is how she goes from a cynical, sarcastic woman to a worried and fearful one when she explains her reasons as to why she won’t testify at the trial.
The same thing goes for Hackman who really shines like a candle with his portrayal of Caufield. Caufield was definitely a different kind of action hero, not like the kind we grew up seeing back in the 80s and 90s where the good guys were a one many army able to take down dozens of minions with bullets and martial arts (not that that’s a bad thing mind you). But here, Caufield is a hard-boiled deputy D.A. (who surprisingly has a background in the Marines as noted by one of the killers in the film) who relies on wits and ingenuity to keep the bad guys at bay or to keep them guessing. Caufield is also incorruptible as shown in an encounter in the dining car of the train when lead assassin Nelson (played by James Sikking) attempts to bribe him for Carol’s whereabouts on the train and even tries to use subtle intimidation to break Caufield but that doesn’t work. Caufield shows the audience that he’s the only real barricade standing between the bad guys, their mission and Carol’s life from being ended by a bullet and he’s not afraid to speak his mind toward the bad guys even though there’s a chance that they could end his life in a millisecond. Caufield won’t surrender or back down and is ready to give his life if it means Carol’s survival. Also, after Carol tells him the reason behind why she won’t testify he becomes more of a compassionate person and is even more determined to keep her alive no matter what the cost even if it’s his own life. The script writers did an excellent job of bringing the main characters to life in this picture and they weren’t wooden at all. They really made me feel for them and it made me root for Caufield and Carol all the way through the film.
Last but certainly not least on the film’s agenda are the supporting role of the bad guys in the film. One of the things that Peter Hyams is well-known for when doing action films is how he establishes the antagonists. In all of his movies from Running Scared, to Sudden Death, and Enemies Closer, Hyams really pushes the envelope to show that the bad guys aren’t just mooks to be dispatched by the hero on a whim. He shows that they’re cruel and sociopathic people who shouldn’t be taken lightly no matter what. For example, in the film Sudden Death, Hyams shows some extremely violent sequences where terrorists lead by Joshua Foss (played by the late Powers Boothe) are cold, cruel and calculating. These guys, like their boss, didn’t waste words or time executing anybody who got in their way: security guards, Secret Service agents, civilians…hell, Carla the terrorist who was disguised as the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot Icey was gonna execute the hero’s daughter after she witnessed her kill two people but luckily for her, Carla ran out of bullets and was forced to take her up to the Owner’s box where other V.I.P.s were being held hostage in order to keep her from flapping her gums like a parrot, thus ruining the bad guys extortion plans. Narrow Margin pretty much follows that same format when establishing the criminals hired by Harris Yulin’s character in the film. Though his time in the movie is brief, Yulin makes good use of his screen time as notorious gangster Leo Watts who in an icy and chilling intro shows the audience why stealing from the mob is pretty much like signing your own death warrant. When Watts tells his lawyer Tarlow about someone he trusted stealing from him, I began to swallow really hard because I already had a feeling that this somebody he was referring to was Tarlow himself and after Tarlow gives a teary-eyed confession it looked as though Watts was somewhat understanding…NOT!
I’ve learned in these particular movies that just because a mob boss doesn’t show anger or keeps himself under control that doesn’t mean that he’s gonna let bygones be bygones if somebody screws him over. And needless to say, Tarlow’s life came to an abrupt halt at the beginning of this film when it was revealed that he was the one skimming from his own client and it is this foolish mistake that sets in motion the events of the film.
Veteran actors James Sikking (David Howser from Doogie Howser, M.D.) and Nigel Bennett (known for his role as Lacroix from the Canadian horror series Forever Knight) round out the cast as Nelson and Jack Wooton, two relentless professional killers hired by Watts to find Carol and terminate her with extreme prejudice. These two make for an interesting double-threat in the movie with Nelson being the Yin and Wooton being the yang.
Nelson is a sharp-dressed hitman who sports a pair of cowboy boots with tips on them and despite his ruthless profession as a killer for hire he still has a calm and professional demeanor in the movie particularly when he confronts Hackman’s character in the diner car and attempts to bribe him for Carol’s whereabouts over drinks. The exchange between Sikking and Hackman in that scene is very bone-chilling to say the least but it’s also kind of humorous especially when Hackman’s character declares that he doesn’t know of the ‘woman’ that Nelson is speaking of. It was almost like watching Sean Connery and Gert Fröbe’s exchange during the laser cutting scene in ‘Goldfinger’. What makes the exchange between them so interesting is how Bennett’s character Wooton just calmly and coldly watches them during the exchange, saying very little the whole time as if he’s judging the outcome of the situation or playing referee when someone is about to go out of bounds.
Speaking of Bennett, his character Wooton is ice-cold to the core in this movie. The guy doesn’t have many speaking lines in this movie and when he does have something to say, his pistol is usually the thing that answers for him. The scene of Bennett executing Watts’ attorney Tarlow was just ruthless if not shocking. As Anne Archer’s character says to Caufield later in the movie when they’re alone, “I saw a man take another man’s life as casually as taking a stick of gum.” That’s how downright dirty Wooton is in this movie: like the Terminator, he just does as he’s ordered with no questions asked and he carries out his duties with nothing more than a ruthless, unemotional stare. God help you if you wind up in this guy’s crosshairs and like Nelson, he definitely served as an obstacle to Caufield and Carol’s survival in this film.
Summing It All Up
Narrow Margin has a lot going for it in terms of good acting, spectacular suspense and plot twists (some which are kind of predictable) and a climatic ending that will really put the audience on the edge of their seats. Whether on cable t.v., DVD or even streaming it’s an interesting remake that is worth viewing and owning and I guarantee that this film will definitely give you your money’s worth if you check it out.
So if you’re looking for a good suspense thriller to watch on at night, give Narrow Margin a chance and I assure you, you won’t be disappointed.
The Cable Critic 
Classic!!! Gene Jackman is such a great actor. He has been in so many good movies. I can’t keep count.
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I think this one is his greatest role (though he has countless others just as good as this one). What makes his role here so interesting, is that his character isn’t some adrenaline pumping action hero, but he’s no slouch or a pushover either. Robert Caufield has wits and brains and he knows how to put them to good use. Plus, his only concern in this movie is the safety of Anne Archer’s character.
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