Accidental witness

Narrow Margin (Accidental witness in Spain and Al margin of danger in Latin America) is a 1990 American action film directed by Peter Hyams. Starring Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, J.T. Walsh, James Sikking, M. Emmet Walsh and Susan Hogan in the lead roles. It is a remake of The Narrow Margin, by Richard Fleischer.

Synopsis

Carol Hunnicut (Anne Archer) has by chance witnessed a murder committed by Leo Watts, a Los Angeles organized crime leader, against his lawyer for embezzlement. Nobody saw her, but she fears the worst and hides in a house located in the mountains of Canada.

The police find out what she's seen, and the prosecutor finds her in Canada with their help. There, the prosecutor (Gene Hackman) wants to convince her to testify in a trial against Leo Watts. She resists. However, the criminals at the service of Leo Watts have also been able to locate her and are trying to assassinate her along with the prosecutor and those who have accompanied her. Everyone except her and the prosecutor are killed. She is left with no alternative but to flee with the prosecutor with the criminals on her heels towards a nearby railway station.

The two manage to catch the train there on time without the criminals being able to prevent it, so now they have no choice but to also get on the train without causing a ruckus. There the prosecutor protects her by hiding her, but the criminals manage to cut communications on the train. Now a confrontation to the death is about to start against a numerically superior enemy without the prosecutor having the chance to ask the authorities for help. The only advantage of her is that they will only attack when they find her, but over time the chances of hiding her are reduced and also she can't trust anyone.

Cast

• Gene Hackman - Robert Caulfield
• Anne Archer - Carol Hunnicut
• James Sikking - Nelson
• J.T. Walsh - Michael Tarlow
• M. Emmet Walsh - Sergeant Dominick Benti
• Susan Hogan - Kathryn Weller
• Nigel Bennett - Jack Wootton
• Codie Lucas Wilbee - Nicholas
• Kevin McNulty - James Dahlbeck
• Harris Yulin - Leo Watts

Production

Like Elliott Gould's character in Capricorn One, Gene Hackman is named in the script "Robert Caulfield," which is the name of director Peter Hyams' former boss.

Hyams looked at many old classic but not too famous movies for a modern remake and chose Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin.

It was shot in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The train is a BC Rail SD40-2 diesel. Its carriages were painted in the colors of the Toronto-Vancouver line. Some of the far shots were filmed using a model train. The cabin at the beginning was built especially for the filming. It was Hackman's own idea for his character to wear glasses.

Reception

According to ABC, this remake, although it does not contribute anything new with respect to the original film by Richard Fleischer, still maintains, with great efficiency, the classic parameters of a thriller and also the protagonists of film production perform their roles well.