Richard Fleischer’s thriller achieves classic noir status thanks to Earl Felton’s Oscar nominated script—the dialog is so hard boiled it sizzles. The terrific Charles McGraw plays a cop protecting a gangster’s girlfriend train-bound for the grand jury—assorted assassins and gangsters have other ideas. As the unmanageable mobster’s moll, the great Marie Windsor is one of the most duplicitous dames in noir history. Rko boss Howard Hughes liked this quickie so much that he kept it on the shelf for two years while pondering whether to to remake it with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Luckily he decided against it.
The post The Narrow Margin appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post The Narrow Margin appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 9/13/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Noir Nirvana isn’t found amid literary swells and hoity-toity art connoisseurs — but in the trenches of humble Eagle-Lion Films, where Richard Fleischer, Lloyd Bridges and a hotter-than-hot Barbara Payton steamed up the streets of Los Angeles circa 1949. The Film Noir Foundation experts give us an expertly curated slice of hardboiled crime — Eddie Muller dubs it ‘To Live and Die in L.A.,’ but in the year that the Reds took over mainland China, and the Ussr exploded its first Atom bomb.
Trapped
Blu-ray + DVD
Flicker Alley
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date December 17, 2019 / 39.98
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Stephen Chase, Tommy Noonan, Douglas Spencer.
Cinematography: Guy Roe
Film Editor: Alfred DeGaetano
Original Music: Sol Kaplan
Written by Earl Felton, George Zuckerman
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by Richard Fleischer
The Film Noir Foundation has done it again — the non-profit has...
Trapped
Blu-ray + DVD
Flicker Alley
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date December 17, 2019 / 39.98
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Stephen Chase, Tommy Noonan, Douglas Spencer.
Cinematography: Guy Roe
Film Editor: Alfred DeGaetano
Original Music: Sol Kaplan
Written by Earl Felton, George Zuckerman
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by Richard Fleischer
The Film Noir Foundation has done it again — the non-profit has...
- 12/17/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hidden behind the membership-only barrier of The Disney Movie Club is a long-delayed, long-missed key feature from The Mouse, Walt’s masterful super-production of the timeless Jules Verne classic. Despite the funny songs and an annoyingly ‘ork-ork’-ing sea lion, the lavishly filmed show embraces the dark side of Verne’s vision — Captain Nemo is nothing less than an anti-Colonial terrorist, waging a one-submarine war against international warmongers. With the commanding James Mason in the role, the film’s furious politics are as impressive as the to-die-for art direction: this Disney family attraction has us rooting for the terrorist and against the Imperialist European powers.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Blu-ray
The Disney Movie Club
1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 127 min. / Anniversary Edition / Street Date June 18, 2019 / Disney Movie Club exclusive.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke, Ted de Corsia, Carleton Young.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Film Editor: Elmo Williams...
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Blu-ray
The Disney Movie Club
1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 127 min. / Anniversary Edition / Street Date June 18, 2019 / Disney Movie Club exclusive.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke, Ted de Corsia, Carleton Young.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Film Editor: Elmo Williams...
- 7/2/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Don’t look to this noir for hardboiled cynicism – for his first feature Nicholas Ray instead gives us a dose of fatalist romance. Transposed from the previous decade, a pair of fugitives takes what happiness they can find, always aware that a grim fate waits ahead. The show is a career-making triumph and a real classic from Rko — which shelved it for more than a year.
They Live by Night
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 880
1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 13, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig, Will Wright, William Phipps, Ian Wolfe, Harry Harvey, Marie Bryant, Byron Foulger, Erskine Sanford .
Cinematography: George E. Diskant
Film Editor: Sherman Todd
Original Music: Leigh Harline
Written by Charles Schnee, Nicholas Ray from the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson
Produced by John Houseman
Directed by Nicholas Ray...
They Live by Night
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 880
1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 13, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig, Will Wright, William Phipps, Ian Wolfe, Harry Harvey, Marie Bryant, Byron Foulger, Erskine Sanford .
Cinematography: George E. Diskant
Film Editor: Sherman Todd
Original Music: Leigh Harline
Written by Charles Schnee, Nicholas Ray from the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson
Produced by John Houseman
Directed by Nicholas Ray...
- 6/23/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I guess Howard Hughes wanted to go easy on Minnesota Nazis. William Cameron Menzies directs a Cold War thriller about an insidious germ warfare conspiracy -- it's an early paranoid suspense tale with apocalyptic consequences. But the story behind the movie's making -- and then remaking -- is even more fantastic. The Whip Hand DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 18.59 Starring Elliott Reid, Raymond Burr, Carla Balenda, Edgar Barrier, Otto Waldis, Michael Steele, Lurene Tuttle, Peter Brocco, Lewis Martin, Frank Darien, Olive Carey, George Chandler, Gregory Gaye. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Film Editor Robert Golden Original Music Music by Paul Sawtell Written by George Bricker, Frank L. Moss, Ray Hamilton Produced by Louis J. Rachmil Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Film writers Bill Warren and Tom Weaver have reported extensively on the unusual production story...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Film writers Bill Warren and Tom Weaver have reported extensively on the unusual production story...
- 6/4/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Narrow Margin
Written by Earl Felton
Directed by Richard Fleischer
USA, 1952
Single-location films can be a tough sell for some. In some instances, the location might seem too preposterous to be the setting for an entire story, thus creating a sense that the project is based on a gimmick. It requires some considerable storytelling prowess to properly convey the reasons why characters would remain in said location if dangers lurk around every corner, and to create new, plausible threats to keep the interest level high. Trains as single-location settings present some interesting challenges. They offer its passengers the opportunity to peruse its in and outs in many ways, not all of which offer a lot of breathing room. Richard Fleischer turned out to be one such director capable of taking full advantage of the setting with 1952’s The Narrow Margin.
Detective Sergeants Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) and Gus Forbes...
Written by Earl Felton
Directed by Richard Fleischer
USA, 1952
Single-location films can be a tough sell for some. In some instances, the location might seem too preposterous to be the setting for an entire story, thus creating a sense that the project is based on a gimmick. It requires some considerable storytelling prowess to properly convey the reasons why characters would remain in said location if dangers lurk around every corner, and to create new, plausible threats to keep the interest level high. Trains as single-location settings present some interesting challenges. They offer its passengers the opportunity to peruse its in and outs in many ways, not all of which offer a lot of breathing room. Richard Fleischer turned out to be one such director capable of taking full advantage of the setting with 1952’s The Narrow Margin.
Detective Sergeants Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) and Gus Forbes...
- 12/6/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Armored Car Robbery
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Earl Felton, Gerald Drayson Adams et al.
U.S.A., 1950
The subject of a common argument amongst film lovers pertains to a given movie’s length. Was the movie too short, too long or just the right length? The easy answer is, naturally, that it depends on the film and what story the screenwriter and director want to tell. Said easy answer is but an open door to many other directly related questions, the most crucial being ‘How well do the screenwriters and director go about telling said story during the specified running time?’ That is where the real debate lies. Movie A required more time to flesh out character arcs, to which one can reply that, on the contrary, movie A is long enough as is. The shorter the film, the more economical the creators must be, although if done right,...
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Earl Felton, Gerald Drayson Adams et al.
U.S.A., 1950
The subject of a common argument amongst film lovers pertains to a given movie’s length. Was the movie too short, too long or just the right length? The easy answer is, naturally, that it depends on the film and what story the screenwriter and director want to tell. Said easy answer is but an open door to many other directly related questions, the most crucial being ‘How well do the screenwriters and director go about telling said story during the specified running time?’ That is where the real debate lies. Movie A required more time to flesh out character arcs, to which one can reply that, on the contrary, movie A is long enough as is. The shorter the film, the more economical the creators must be, although if done right,...
- 7/7/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
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