Quotes

The Narrow Margin

Walter Brown: Pardon me, I'd like to get through.
Jennings: Sorry, this train wasn't designed for my tonnage, heh. Nobody loves a fat man except his grocer and his tailor!

[On bribes]
Walter Brown: I don't say I've never been tempted. Of course I've been tempted; I'm human like anybody else. But to spend the rest of my time worrying when I'll be caught up with by some hoodlum holding a first mortgage on my life, payable on demand...! Naah. No kind of money worth that.

Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: Bet you're wondering the same thing I am - what she looks like.
Walter Brown: I don't have to wonder - I know.
Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: Why, that's wonderful, Walter, nobody's seen her but you know what she looks like. What a gift.
Walter Brown: Aw, come off it, yer just makin' talk.
Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: Well, we get there just as fast, talkin'. What about this dame, Mr. Crystal Ball?
Walter Brown: A dish.
Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: What kind of a dish?
Walter Brown: Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy.
Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: How do you know all this?
Walter Brown: Well, what kind of a dame would marry a hood?
Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: All kinds.

Vincent Yost: We're ready to make a deal. You have her, we want her, how much? It's as simple as that.
Walter Brown: You're under arrest.
Vincent Yost: For what?
Walter Brown: Attempted bribery.
Vincent Yost: Bribery? Heh - you'd never make it stick. I'm a sales executive for the Midwest Equipment Company, Chicago. I've never even gotten as much as a parking ticket.

Walter Brown: Sister, I've known some pretty hard cases in my time; you make 'em all look like putty. You're not talking about a sack of gumdrops that's gonna be smashed - you're talking about a dame's life! You may think it's a funny idea for a woman with a kid to stop a bullet for you, only I'm not laughing!
Mrs. Neall: Where do you get off, being so superior? Why shouldn't I take advantage of her - I want to live! If you had to step on someone to get something you wanted real bad, would you think twice about it?
Walter Brown: Shut up!
Mrs. Neall: In a pig's eye you would! You're no different from me.
Walter Brown: Shut up!
Mrs. Neall: Not till I tell you something, you cheap badge-pusher! When we started on this safari, you made it plenty clear I was just a job, and no joy in it, remember?
Walter Brown: Yeah, and it still goes, double!
Mrs. Neall: Okay, keep it that way. I don't care whether you dreamed up this gag or not; you're going right along with it, so don't go soft on me. And once you handed out a line about poor Forbes getting killed, 'cause it was his duty. Well, it's your duty too! Even if this dame gets murdered.
Walter Brown: You make me sick to my stomach.
Mrs. Neall: Well, use your own sink. And let me know when the target practice starts!

Walter Brown: So far they haven't spotted you, and they don't know what you look like. But they've seen me. If they start shooting in my direction, I don't want you hit.
Mrs. Neall: You're sure it isn't the other way around?

Walter Brown: You're a pretty good judge of crooks, Mrs. Neall; the only place you slip up is with cops. I turned the deal down.
Mrs. Neall: Then you're a bigger idiot than I thought! When are you going to get it through your square head that this is big business? And we're right in the middle.
Walter Brown: Meaning you'd like to sell out?
Mrs. Neall: With pleasure and profit, and so would you. What are the odds if we don't? I sing my song for the grand jury, and spend the rest of my life dodging bullets - -if I'm lucky! - -while you grow old and gray on the police force. Oh, wake up, Brown. This train's headed straight for the cemetery. But there's another one coming along, a gravy train. Let's get on it.
Walter Brown: Mrs. Neall, I'd like to give you the same answer I gave that hood - but it would mean stepping on your face.

Mrs. Neall: That hood wasn't looking at her big blue eyes. He thinks that's me, and I think that's dandy.

Joseph Kemp: All right copper, I'm not in this alone, but you are. You're just one guy buckin' a big company, it don't matter if you beat my brains out or not - we're in business for keeps.

Joseph Kemp: Why don't ya get wise to yourself and give her a break? What's the use of makin' that kid an orphan? Or maybe you like trouble.
Joseph Kemp: Give us the list and nobody gets hurt - no grief, no mess.
Walter Brown: Except for Mrs. Neill, who gets double-crossed ten minutes later. What do ya take me for, a jumbo-sized sucker?

[opening her compartment door in the morning and seeing Brown strap on his gun]
Mrs. Neall: What're you gonna do, go out and shoot us some breakfast?

Walter Brown: Yeah, he was getting old and slow. You could put a live bomb in his hand and count 10 before he'd drop it.

Mrs. Neall: Well, my taste doesn't usually run to cops, but you might not be such dull company at that.
Walter Brown: Mrs. Neall, we better get one thing straight. You're just a job to me. A COD package to be delivered to the LA grand jury and there's no joy in it. I don't like you any more than Forbes did, but he got himself murdered for you and maybe I will, too. That's what they pay me for. Do we understand each other?
Mrs. Neall: Relax, Percy, your shield's untarnished. I've changed my mind.
[Grabs the detective's hand with a match and lights her cigarette.]
Mrs. Neall: I wouldn't want any of that nobility to rub off on me.

Tommy Sinclair: There he is. If you don't believe me, search him. The gun's right under his arm.
Walter Brown: Now, now, now. If you're a good boy, I'll show you the gun sometime.
Tommy Sinclair: Show it to me now!
Walter Brown: Come on, son. You're blocking traffic.
[Lifts the boy and places him behind him.]
Walter Brown: Attaboy.
Mrs. Troll: Then, you have got a gun!
Walter Brown: All robbers carry guns, madam.

Mrs. Neall: Well, this is fun. Some protection they sent me. An old man who walks right into it, and a weeper.

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Top Gap

By what name was The Narrow Margin (1952) officially released in India in English?