The Narrow Margin Blu-ray review
Feb 11, 2026- Permalink
A hard-boiled police detective and a slain gangster’s widow. Add mob assassins and a moving train and you have the recipe for Richard Fleischer’s 1952 film noir, The Narrow Margin, which stars Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, and Jacqueline White. Like a speeding train, the film packs a tight storyline into a 72 minute runtime. Produced on a low budget, audiences loved the film and it was very profitable for RKO Studios. Warner Archive has now released it on Blu-ray and thanks to them and Aliied Vaughn, I had a chance to take a look.
The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is from a 4K scan of the original camera negative and wow, it just looks great. Crisp clean detail highlight facial features, textiles and locations. The grayscale palette flows nicely and the black levels are deep with detail in the shadows. There’s no real sign of print damage or digital noise.
On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. This is a noir and the rapid-fire dialogue is crisp and prioritized in the mix. Ambient sounds and effects are present but never distract.
The Narrow Margin Blu-ray does not come with a digital code. Extras include filmmaker William Friedkin provides a commentary track that includes interview snippets with Richard Fleischer. “So You Never Tell a Lie” is a 1952 comedy short starring George O’Hanlon as Joe McDoakes, a character he played in sixty-three shorts. We also get the Technicolor animated short “The Super Snooper”, where Daffy Duck plays a private eye, ear, nose, and throat. I love that Warner Archive includes these contemporary shorts. We also get a trailer for the movie.
The Narrow Margin is a great film noir with a fantastic audio and video presentation, a commentary and a couple of fun contemporary shorts. Recommended.