a5c7b9f00b Four armed men hijack a New York City subway train and demand 1 million dollars - which must be delivered in 1 hour - for the train and the lives of the passengers held hostage. Lt. Zachary Garber of the New York City Transit Police must contend with City Hall red tape, the unrelenting demands of the hijackers, and the ever-ticking clock in his efforts to save the passengers and bring the hijackers to justice. A tense situation develops in a New York subway when a group of unidentified gunmen hold the passengers of a subway car hostage in exchange for money. A veteran detective attempts to track down the identities of the gunmen in this offbeat crime film. A dynamite film with an outrageous plot that works. A group of mercenaries hijacks a NYC subway train and holds the passengers hostage. It's a rip-roaring suspense film with an unusually strong cast including Walter Matthau as the world-weary transit cop charged with negotiating with the madmen and Robert Shaw as a very nasty villain. Directed at breakneck pace by the efficient Joseph Sargent and featuring a now classic score by David Shire, the movie is full of scares, a good amount of mayhem and a lot of humor. Matthau is priceless and Shaw is pure evil...you don't even need to know his real name (he and his cohorts are color coded...he's Mr. Blue) to get this character's insanity. Shaw is a great actor and has a lot of chemistry with Matthau even though the share little physical screen time together. The supporting cast consists of a slew of terrific character actors including Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Dick O'Neill, Jerry Stiller, Tony Roberts, Julius Harris and Doris Roberts. There's a great performance by Tom Pedi as Caz Dolowicz, a particularly angry transit worker. Owen Roizman, who shot everything from THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE EXORCIST to THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR and NETWORK did the cinematography. The 2009 version is a very loose remake but very worthwhile on its own. If you have never seen this movie then go ahead. You will maybe find it interesting. I have another problem instead. I saw this in the mid '70s on CBS and it was a thrill. So recently I bought the DVD and when I watched it again I was bored to death!<br/><br/>Gee whiz, a movie that takes place almost entirely on a subway wagon with the lights out stuck in a dark gallery. The hijackers talking by radio with the authority. Walter Matthau that practically doesn't move from his desk. They want 1 million $ within 60 minutes but cinematographically this movie is really flat. The only thing that will bring you to see it entirely is not knowing how it will end (Matthau in all his splendor).<br/><br/>The DVD by the way is rather awful. The colors are not clean and clear. The edges are over-enhanced. There was no need to film this in format 2.35:1 very wide screen. Something closer to the (old) television format 1.33:1 would have been much better. Throughout, there's a skillful balance between the vulnerability of New Yorkers and the drastic, provocative sense of comedy that thrives all over our sidewalks. Four men, who go only by the names Mr Blue (<a href="/name/nm0001727/">Robert Shaw</a>), Mr Green (<a href="/name/nm0000842/">Martin Balsam</a>), Mr Gray (<a href="/name/nm0001185/">Hector Elizondo</a>), and Mr Brown (<a href="/name/nm0385561/">Earl Hindman</a>), hijack New York City's Pelham 1:23 subway train, take 17 passengers plus the conductor as hostages, and demand $1 million dollars in ransom, and they want it in exactly one hour or they will execute one hostage each minute that the money is late. Lt Zachary Garber (<a href="/name/nm0000527/">Walter Matthau</a>) of the NYC Transit Police must negotiate with the hijackers, contend with City Hall red tape, and try to identify the hijackers and figure out how they intend to escape, since they are in a tunnel surrounded on all sides by police. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (aka The Taking of Pelham 123) is based on the 1973 novel (same title) by American author Morton Freedgood, writing under the pen name of John Godey. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Peter Stone. There have since been two remakes: <a href="/title/tt0140594/">The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998)</a> (a television release in 1998) and <a href="/title/tt1111422/">The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)</a> (2009). "Pelham" refers to a local Manhattan train that departs from Pelham Bay Park. The 1-2-3 refers to the time that it leaves: 1:23. In order to assure the safety of the hostages, the mayor (<a href="/name/nm0908751/">Lee Wallace</a>) agrees to pay the ransom. Unfortunately, it took them almost a half hour to come to that decision. Now they've got only 30 minutes to get and deliver the million dollars. The dead man feature is a device built into the train that requires a motorman's hand to be pressing the throttle at all times. If it's released, the train stops cold. Once the money is in their hands, the hijackers start up the train, having found a way to circumvent the dead man feature. They get off the train and backtrack through the tunnel while the train goes forward, picking up speed until the passengers become alarmed and realize that no one is driving the train. On a hunch, Lt Garver and Inspector Daniels (<a href="/name/nm0364918/">Julius Harris</a>) backtrack to the 17th Street station where the train made a short stop (that's where the hijackers got off). Meanwhile, the train has tripped a red light and stopped at the South Ferry Loop, and all of the passengers are safe. Mr Blue has shot and killed Mr Gray for refusing to relinquish his gun, Mr Green has exited the subway with his share of the money, and a plain clothes policeman, who was among the hostages and managed to get off the train, has shot and killed Mr Brown and been shot by Mr Blue. Just as Mr Blue is about to finish off the policeman, Garver shows up and pulls a gun on Mr Blue. Realizing that he's been caught and learning that New York does not execute criminals, Mr Blue steps on the hot rail and electrocutes himself. Three hijackers accounted for, but who is the fourth? Armed with a list of nine ex-motormen, one of whom could possibly be the fourth hijacker, Garver and Lt Patrone (<a href="/name/nm0005467/">Jerry Stiller</a>) visit each man on the list, checking their alibis. Harold (Mr Green) Longman's alibi sounds a bit shaky ("I was here sleeping until an hour ago"), and Garver and Patrone are about to leave when Longman suddenly sneezes, and Garver replies "Gesundheit", just as he did several times earlier when he heard Mr Green sneezing over the radio.
Comments