Remakes of classic films are almost always mistakes; the 1952 film The Narrow Margin, however, is a fine candidate for a remake, being a mild take on an alluring premise. Unfortunately, the filmmakers succeeded in updating the story but not in improving upon it.

The story concerns a woman trying to stay alive after witnessing a Mafia murder of her blind date. For her own safety, she is unwilling to testify, so she must elude both the authorities and the Mafia, both hot on her tail. Most of the action takes place aboard a train, and for a while it looks like this might be a train-set suspense film worthy of Alfred Hitchcock's definitive The Lady Vanishes. An abrupt ending shatters that illusion, however, and only then does one realize how good this ultimately shallow film might have been.