"To Better Tracks and Steadier Nerves": The Role of the Train in the Representation of Masculinity in The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer, 1952) *

Cristelle Maury (1)

1 CAS - Cultures anglo-saxonnes

In many ways, the phrase "To better tracks and steadier nerves"proffered to Detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) by Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White)sums up the renewed representation of the male protagonist as a complex noir antihero. In The Narrow Margin, Sinclair is a benevolent, upper-class mother and an unobtrusive train passenger who turns out to be the widow of a mobster. Brown is a police detective in charge of escorting Frankie Neal, a "gangster moll" (Mary Windsor), on the same train from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she is to testify before a grand jury against her late husband's associates. Neal is, of course, but a decoy for the real widow, Sinclair. Brown's efforts to protect the slain gangster's wife against the mobsters out to get her, puts him in an apparently dominant position. However, he also has to face a series of setbacks which befits his precarious status as a hero, especially when it becomes clear that he has been used as a pawn, since he ignored that the "widow" was in fact an undercover police officer. Brown finds out that the home office has been testing him, because he was suspected of taking bribes, and he ultimately turns out a classical film noir anti-hero on two accounts: he is manipulated and wrongly accused. In keeping with a long line of film noir detectives who are characterized by their problematic relationship with law enforcement, Brown can also be defined by his ambivalence. 1 He hesitates between righteousness and corruption. Indeed, one of the central elements of the plot is the fact that he is torn between good and evil, as he is tempted by bribes. Wavering between excessive manliness and the lack of it, the male * To cite this article: Cristelle Maury, "'To Better Tracks and Steadier Nerves': The Role of the Train in the

Domaines: Etudes sur le genre

Cristelle Maury. "To Better Tracks and Steadier Nerves": The Role of the Train in the Representation of Masculinity in The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer, 1952) *. Film Journal , 2016. ⟨hal-04004338⟩