Narrow Margin
Narrow Margin is a 1990 American neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Peter Hyams. It stars Gene Hackman and Anne Archer, with James B. Sikking, Nigel Bennett, Harris Yulin and J. T. Walsh in supporting roles. It was released in the United States by TriStar Pictures on September 21, 1990.
Based on the 1952 film The Narrow Margin, it is the first of two RKO reimaginings by Hyams, the other being 2009's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. The film keeps the same general story, and follows Los Angeles deputy district attorney Robert Caulfield who attempts to keep murder witness Carol Hunnicut safe from hitmen while traveling on a train. However, it changes the moral alignment of some characters, and the setting from the Super Chief route to the Canadian Rockies.
Plot
In Los Angeles, divorced editor Carol Hunnicut is on a blind date at a hotel restaurant with widowed lawyer Michael Tarlow, when a waiter delivers a message for him to phone a client. Tarlow goes to his suite to make the call and invites her to come with him. While Hunnicut watches from a darkened room, the client, crime boss Leo Watts, unexpectedly arrives in person along with a gunman, Jack Wootton. Watts has learned that Tarlow stole from him and Wootton shoots Tarlow dead.Having learnt that Tarlow was Watts's lawyer, Hunnicut realizes that she is in danger. She delivers her son to his father and urges them to go into hiding, then flees to a borrowed cabin in the Canadian Rockies, telling only one person where she went and what she saw. Police sergeant Dominick Benti traces Hunnicut and gives her location to deputy district attorney and a former Marine Robert Caulfield. Over the objections of his boss, Caulfield charters a helicopter flight to the cabin and meets a scared Hunnicut. At this point, the group is attacked by Watts' men, the pilot and Benti both being killed.
Caulfield and Hunnicut escape in her SUV to a station, where a train to Vancouver is stopped. Looking for a hiding spot aboard, they are told that all private cabins have been booked, but manage to con an elderly couple into giving up theirs. However, Caulfield is seen getting on the train by Wootton and another of the gunmen, Nelson. Eventually, Caulfield is able to meet up with Hunnicut in the cabin without the two gunmen finding out what she looks like. At the next station, he phones his office and speaks to fellow deputy DA, James Dahlbeck, to arrange for police to meet the train at the following station. But the "police" turn out to be more of Watts' men, thereby confirming that Dahlbeck is dirty. After a fight, Caulfield manages to reboard the train. Nelson attempts to bribe Caulfield into turning Hunnicut over to them, but he refuses.
Another passenger, Kathryn Weller, strikes up an acquaintance with Caulfield, who realizes he must protect her from being mistaken for Hunnicut and killed. As he rushes her to safety, another passenger, Keller, gets suspicious and reveals himself as a railroad policeman. Caulfield entrusts Weller to Keller's protection and asks him to use his police radio to inform the authorities of Dahlbeck's betrayal, but he is shot dead before making the call. Eventually Caulfield is seen with Hunnicut and they are both forced onto the roof of the train. Caulfield fights off the two gunmen, before Weller appears, revealing herself as another assassin, but she is knocked off the train when it enters a tunnel. Later, in a Los Angeles courtroom, Hunnicut testifies about Tarlow's murder and identifies Leo Watts.
Cast
Production
Development
got the idea to remake the film The Narrow Margin after happening upon it on late night television. He asked his then employer Paramount Pictures to acquire the rights, although the project later found a home at a different studio. Hyams said: "I didn't think the movie was terrific, but I thought the idea of people being stuck on a train was wonderful." Jonathan Zimbert, who started as Hyams' assistant and was eventually promoted all the way to producer, collaborated with his mentor once more. One of the Carolco executives overseeing the project was future Derailed director Bob Misiorowski. The film was budgeted between 15 and 20 million during production, with a later estimate coming in at $21 million.Writing
Due to the lesser popularity of rail travel in the late 1980s, the story was relocated to the Canadian wilderness to justify the lack of alternative transport options, and to make getting off the train appear like a riskier proposition. The Mexican desert was also considered, but due to the passengers' demographics, it was deemed implausible that Anne Archer and Gene Hackman's characters Carol Hunnicut and Robert Caulfield would be able to remain hidden among them for long.A New York Times article outsourced to Vancouver Sun writer Moira Farrow relayed the filmmakers' opinion that "he title Narrow Margin is all that's left of the original movie. The new film has a completely different story and character, so the word remake does not apply." The manner in which they distanced themselves from the original drew the ire of its director Richard Fleischer, who penned a rebuke to the Times, pointing to the similarities between Hyams' pitch and the film he had made. Fleischer concluded: "How different can two stories get? Tell me, when is a remake not a remake? Maybe it's when the new film costs between $15 million and $20 million to make instead of $188,000."
Casting
Star Gene Hackman had had several on-and-off conversations with Hyams about working together over the years. He was attracted to the character Caulfield's agreeable demeanor and the fact he did not shoot anyone throughout, which contrasted with the more aggressive types generally shown in the adventure genre. The actor contributed incidental details, such as the glasses and the water pistol squirts during a suspense scene, to underscore that mellow side. Co-star Anne Archer found herself available for this film after opting out of a previously scheduled project, the erotic thriller Wild Orchid. Susan Hogan was selected based on her role on the Canadian-filmed series Night Heat, of which director Peter Hyams was a fan. He reached out to the actress' agency to request tapes of her, and later cast her over the phone.Train
The train portrayed in the film is The Canadian transcontinental, which has operated since 1955, and serves what is often described as Canada's flagship route between Toronto and Vancouver. However Via Rail, the country's national operator in the film as in real life, backed out of leasing one of its carriages to the producers due to overbooking. Only an engine and a baggage car actually came from Via Rail. The others were leased a Colorado-based company, a Texas collector and provincial operator BC Rail. They were then refurbished and repainted to resemble the real thing.Filming
The shoot was organized by production services contractor International Production Services. Principal photography began on June 12, 1989, and was reported as complete by Variety in their October 23, 1989 edition. However, the last stretch in October was dedicated to stunts and the two stars had already returned to Los Angeles. Despite their lived-in look, some of the film's locations were built specifically for the film, such as Carol's cabin on Grouse Mountain and a pair of train stations. While Lac des Arcs is a real place in Alberta, there was no railroad stop at that point. The fictional Monashee station, taking its name from the Monashee Mountains, was erected in a locale called Porteau. Some train interiors were also recreated on a set built inside a warehouse on Vancouver's Euclid Avenue, and mounted on an inflatable platform to create the appropriate swaying motions.Most of the actual train sequences were shot around Garibaldi Park, and used BC Rail tracks to avoid disrupting the busier Via Rail lines. The climax atop the train was filmed between Howe Sound and Cheakamus Canyon near Squamish in British Columbia. That part took three weeks to capture, and could only be filmed a couple hours at a time due to the impossibility of diverting the area's regularly scheduled traffic. The film's stars did perform part of the rooftop scene themselves, being secured by cables concealed under their clothes. According to Hackman, this was the first stunt ever performed by co-star Anne Archer.
Release
Box office
Narrow Margin opened in the United States on September 21, 1990. It finished in fourth place at the weekend box office with a $3,628,060 tally. By the end of its domestic run, the film had grossed just $10,873,237. In the United Kingdom, the film debuted on January 18, 1991, to what Variety described as another "disappointing" performance. " Narrow Margin with Anne Archer was a disappointment. It didn't do very well, for whatever reason. It didn't catch on," Hackman later acknowledged.Home video
Narrow Margin was released on home video by Carolco subsidiary Live Entertainment in the United States on March 21, 1991. The film had more legs in the home market, cracking the top ten of the Billboard rental charts in its third week and staying there for four.The DVD released by Optimum Releasing on February 12, 2007 contained curated special features : an audio commentary by Peter Hyams, B-roll footage, a brief documentary and soundbites by the cast and crew. On June 30, 2020, Kino Lorber reissued the film on Blu-ray in the U.S. with a new 4K master, containing the previous features from the Optimum DVD and a new commentary from film historian and critic Peter Tonguette.
Festivals
Narrow Margin was shown at November 1990's London Film Festival, ahead of its wide U.K. release two months later.The film was screened as part of a Summer 1991 train film retrospective organized by New York's Museum of Modern Art, entitled "Junction and Journey: Trains and Film".