Themes: Protecting the Innocent, Train Rides, Woman In Jeopardy
Main Cast: Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James B. Sikking, J.T. Walsh, M. Emmet Walsh
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Narrow Margin directed by Peter Hyams and loosely based on the classic film noir of the same title, tells the story of a resourceful District Attorney who must return a witness to San Francisco alive so she can testify in a trial. Carol (Anne Archer) is in the bathroom of the hotel room of her blind date when he is murdered by mobsters for stealing money. Knowing she is the only witness, Carol flees to an isolated Canadian mountain home to hide out. She is followed by Caulfield (Gene Hackman) who knows that she is a witness and wants to make her testify. When the mobsters track Caulfield to the cabin, Carol must join him in a run for her life on a Canadian train. This film, while it is somewhat uneven, is a tour de force for director/writer/cinematographer Peter Hyams, who delivers a fast-paced, action-packed chase through the Canadian mountains, stunningly photographed and well acted by both Hackman and Archer. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
Review
Narrow Margin presents a hackneyed story line: A woman witnesses a murder, the perpetrators finger her for a hit, and she goes on the lam. But this film has Gene Hackman. It also has suspense and a speeding train on which Hackman plays Spiderman. As a result, the dimwitted plot -- which unabashedly resorts to wizened clichés and contrivances -- turns into a tolerably decent nail-biter. It all starts when Carol Hunicutt (Anne Archer) witnesses mobsters whacking a hapless sap in a Los Angeles hotel room. To escape their wrath, she holes up in a cabin in the Canadian outback. The pace quickens when a Los Angeles deputy, DA Robert Caulfield (Hackman), tracks down Hunicutt to get her to testify against the killers. Mob helicopter hit men hot on the trail shoot the cabin into a honeycomb, but Caulfield and Hunicutt (who are apparently immortal) escape unscathed and race through the wilds. When all seems lost, Caulfield pulls a Chingachgook: He throws a stone to rustle the bushes and the villains turn tail. All right, original and uplifting the film is not, but after Caulfield and Hunicutt hop a train populated by mob strongarm men and spies (in this film, the mob has more resources than the CIA), the plot takes on an Agatha Christie flavor with a twist of Ian Fleming. It's all good fun. No, the film has no redeeming artistic value and no profound message. But once the action starts, it's hard to stop watching it. Be sure to stick around for the final scene when the hero confronts a tall evildoer on the top of a passenger car as the train approaches a tunnel. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Susan Hogan - Kathryn Weller; Nigel Bennett - Jack Wootton; J.A. Preston - Martin Larner; Harris Yulin - Leo Watts; Natino Bellantoni - Bartender; Lindsay Bourne - Club Car Waiter; Ron Cummins - Hotel Valet; Lon Katzman - Loughlin; Tom McBeath - Conductor; Kevin McNulty - James Dahlbeck; Barney O'Sullivan - Ticket Agent; Doreen Ramos - Elderly Woman; Andrew Rhodes - Nigro; Robert Rozen - Dining Car Waiter; Barbara Russell - Nicholas' Mother; B.A. "Smitty" Smith - Keller; Ted Stidder - Conductor #1; Dana Still - Bellman with Message; Codie Lucas Wilbee - Nicholas; Lesley Ewan - Larner's Secretary; Antony Holland - Elderly Man
Credit
Kim Mooney - Art Director, Eric Orbom - Art Director, David Willson - Art Director, Jerry Offsay - Co-producer, Ellen Mirojnick - Costume Designer, Peter Hyams - Director, James Mitchell - Editor, Mario Kassar - Executive Producer, Andrew G. Vajna - Executive Producer, Bruce Broughton - Composer (Music Score), Pat Gerhardt - Makeup, Margaret Solomon - Makeup, Joel Schiller - Production Designer, Peter Hyams - Cinematographer, Mary Eilts - Producer, Jonathan A. Zimbert - Producer, Kim MacKenzie - Set Designer, Stan Parks - Special Effects, Glenn Wilder - Stunts, Jack Leonard - Screen Story, Martin Goldsmith - Screen Story, Peter Hyams - Screenwriter, Earl Felton - From Screenplay by
A Los Angeles District Attorney (Gene Hackman) is attempting to take an unwilling murder witness (Anne Archer) back to the United States from Canada to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to escape two deadly hit men sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to find the killers are on board with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter of life and death.
Background
As with Elliott Gould's character in Capricorn One, Gene Hackman's "Robert Caulfield" is named after Peter Hyams' old boss from his days as working as a TV reporter.
Hyams was intentionally looking through old movies that might be classics, only not TOO famous, to rewrite and remake as a modern film. He finally settled on Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin.
The film was shot in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The train used for both interior and exterior scenes consisted of a BC Rail SD40-2 diesel locomotive and 12 privately owned passenger railcars, all painted in VIA Rail Canada livery to represent the Toronto-Vancouver passenger train. Some of the distant exterior shots were filmed using a model train.[1]
The cabin featured in the first act was specifically built for the movie. Hyams decided to build it atop a mountain while it was still covered in winter snow. When the snow melted it turned out that the spot was actually a dump and it took a while to clear it out.
It was Hackman's idea that his character wear glasses.
DVD release
The DVD released by Optimum Releasing in 2007 is the only DVD available of Narrow Margin with any kind of extra features. All other versions have been without features but the 2007 releases contains a commentary by Peter Hyams, B-Roll footage, a brief documentary, sound-bites by the cast and crew and a trailer.
