I am removed from the primary particular person to level out that trains are inherently cinematic. There’s built-in narrative momentum to any story that takes place on a practice: An enormous automobile is in movement, zooming from one location to a different, and in contrast to planes, A) a practice travels shut sufficient to the bottom that folks can leap or be thrown off (an enormous plot level in Steve McQueen’s latest “Blitz”), and B) there’s nonetheless simply sufficient room for dozens of passengers to stand up, stroll round, work together, and even brawl if the scenario requires it. (Fortunately, there are many motion motion pictures the place the scenario does certainly name for it, like Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2.”) Video essayist Patrick H. Willems has an amazing latest video about this that I like to recommend testing, however right now, I wish to speak about one explicit practice film — probably the greatest I’ve ever seen.
The movie, which got here out in 1952, is known as “The Slender Margin.” Here is the premise: A few cops are tasked with accompanying a murdered gangster’s widow on a cross-country practice trip so she will testify in opposition to the gang, however the mobsters have despatched assassins out to kill her earlier than she will carry the entire group down. Many of the film — which is barely 71 minutes lengthy, by the best way — takes place on a practice, with the first cop (performed by Charles McGraw) begrudgingly defending the sassy moll (performed by Marie Windsor) from the hit males who’re decided to finish her life. Sounds superior, proper? It’s — and I am not the one one who thinks so.
The Slender Margin has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes would not listing many opinions from the period (most are from this century, trying again on the film), so its 100% score is admittedly not as spectacular as a film with 100-plus opinions. However “The Slender Margin” did have one big-name defender: Francois Truffaut, a movie critic who ultimately grew to become one of many key administrators behind the French New Wave. In his essay “From A to Z,” which analyzes “South Sea Sinner” and “The Slender Margin,” he writes that the latter “is charged with very ethical nitroglycerine however confers a grace that any sweaty driver of a heavy, slow-moving automobile would possibly envy.” However extra trendy critics clearly admire the movie, too: Actually, it ended up on /Movie’s listing of underrated movie noir motion pictures just some years in the past.
That is the kind of movie I like to suggest to people who find themselves inquisitive about older motion pictures, however aren’t certain the place to begin. Certain, it is essential to take a look at the classics, however motion pictures like this one — extremely well-constructed thrillers with no trace of aspiration past their means — are what’s saved this business operating for over 100 years. There’s one thing particular a few easy B-movie with a humble finances executed to perfection, with characters who make good selections making an attempt to out-wit one another and survive in tight quarters with a metaphorical ticking clock counting down the entire time. (The entire movie was shot in simply 13 days.) And with out giving something away, there finally ends up being a bit of extra to “The Slender Margin” than initially meets the attention, which makes it much more satisfying than a simple model of this story would possibly’ve been. I do know there are lots of of memorable train-centric movies, lots of them huge and flashy, however this unassuming little thriller is likely one of the easiest Hollywood ever produced.
I spoke a bit of in regards to the movie on right now’s episode of the /Movie Every day podcast, which you’ll be able to take heed to under:
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