The Narrow Margin
US (1952): Crime/Film-Noir/Drama
When a mobster's wife (Marie Windsor) decides to testify against his evil deeds, she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Now that he's coming to trial, she has to be escourted across country via train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) and his partner (Don Beddoe) are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail. Richard Fleischer directs this far-from-routine RKO thriller. The film was shot in 13 days and the only part actually filmed onboard a train was a few seconds of the arrival in Los Angeles. Instead of removing various walls from the sets, Fleischer and cinematographer George E. Diskant decided to make extensive use of a handheld camera that could be brought into rooms; this was one of the first films to do so. To save money the train sets were rigidly fixed to the floor, and the camera was moved to simulate the rocking of the train. (IMDb)
1 nomination
· Writing (Motion Picture Story) 1952: Martin Goldsmith, Jack Leonard