The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974 film)
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| The Taking of Pelham One Two Three | |
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 Original film poster by Mort Künstler |
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| Directed by | Joseph Sargent |
| Produced by | Edgar J. Scherick |
| Written by | John Godey (novel) Peter Stone |
| Starring | Walter Matthau Robert Shaw Martin Balsam Jerry Stiller Hector Elizondo Dick O'Neill Earl Hindman |
| Music by | David Shire |
| Cinematography | Owen Roizman |
| Editing by | Gerald B. Greenberg Robert Q. Lovett |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | October 2, 1974 |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, also known as The Taking of Pelham 123, is a 1974 American heist film starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Jerry Stiller, and Martin Balsam. It was directed by Joseph Sargent, produced by Edgar J. Scherick, and was based on the novel of the same title by John Godey. Peter Stone wrote the screenplay, which takes its basics from the novel but is highly different in approach, embracing a kind of New York City cynicism.[citation needed]
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[edit] Plot
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This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (December 2009) |
In New York City, four men—each wearing a near-identical trenchcoat, thick-rimmed eyeglasses, hat, and wide fake moustache, and carrying a briefcase—board, at different station stops on the Pelham 123 subway train run of the 6 Lexington Avenue Local service, bound from the Pelham Bay Park station in the Bronx to Manhattan. Each briefcase conceals a submachine gun, and the men hijack the train, calling one another Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown. They soon secure a small, easily supervisable group of hostages, whom they isolate in one car of the train. (Eventually they disconnect it from the rest of the train.)
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Zachary Garber (played by Walter Matthau), a cynical and curmudgeonly yet light-hearted New York City Transit Authority policeman begins his day by leading four visiting directors from the Tokyo subway system on a tour of the subway command-center facilities. The train halt between the 28th Street and 23rd Street stations is noted as an impediment to other subway traffic, but the transit authority realizes only when Garber's routine is interrupted by Blue's radio announcement to the command center that a complex crime is in progress.
Blue (Robert Shaw), the leader of the hijackers—distinguished by his calm English accent and cold, calculated demeanor—tells Garber they are demanding that a ransom of a million dollars be delivered to them, to prevent their killing a passenger per minute, starting when exactly one hour has passed. Garber, the sarcastic Lieutenant Rico Patrone (Jerry Stiller), and fellow transit workers cooperate while trying to guess how the criminals intend to escape the subway tunnel, and avoid capture once leaving it.
The film audience learn, by hearing them talk, that Blue was a ruthless British mercenary and that Green (Martin Balsam) is a New York native with an especially good understanding of the train controls (suggesting he is possibly a former transit worker) who is visibly upset when Blue makes it clear that they will indeed begin killing hostages if the money doesn't arrive on time. Green seems to have caught a cold overnight and his repeated sniffling and sneezing is heard through the radio by Garber. Grey, the most impulsive of the group, is constantly reprimanded by Blue; Brown is the quietest.
An angered boss at the Transit Authority seems unable to comprehend the possible risks, boldly walks down the subway tunnel himself to physically approach the hijacked train car, and is shot to death by the hotheaded Grey. Garber learns that one of the hostages is an out-of-uniform, off-duty police officer, and the transit police discuss the likelihood he is armed and the possibility of his providing assistance (but they also speculate that the cop could be a woman).
The mayor, introduced as a ridiculous incompetent, is at home with the flu; he finally agrees to pay the ransom, focused, at the urging of his take-charge deputy mayor, on the prospect of winning votes in the next election. The police dispatch a squad car carrying the ransom money on a frantic drive uptown from the Federal Reserve, as Garber attempts to negotiate with the hijackers by radio from transit police headquarters. When the car is delayed by a collision, Garber daringly bluffs to buy some time, telling the hijackers that the money has already been delivered to the 28th Street Station and only the walk down the tunnel is delaying it. A reluctant Blue finally agrees, uncharacteristically, to delay.
A police motorcycle completes the trip from the scene of the collision to the subway station, and two unarmed officers are sent with the money to the hijackers, quietly followed by an armed police team. Apparently contrary to their plans, they find themselves in a short but vicious shootout with the hijackers, in which Brown is wounded in the arm. The hijackers kill the train's young conductor, and Blue contacts Garber, allowing only thirty seconds for the ransom to arrive to forestall further killings, and the two unarmed police accomplish this. The hijackers now demand restoration of electric power to the entire sector of the Lexington Ave. Line, and turning green of all signals from 28th Street to the closed former South Ferry stop, both of these being necessary for the self-driven car to move. These are accomplished as Garber leaves headquarters, hoping to assist in capturing the gang when the train stops again, but anticipating that their plan includes some further twist that will need to be countered.
The audience learns that the gang have overridden the subway car's dead-man's switch, which would otherwise ensure its stopping unless one of them remained at the throttle. They divide the ransom money and disembark stealthily into the tunnel, leaving the car to carry the hostages away at top speed and be pursued by the police in the belief that its motion proves they are still aboard. The off-duty police officer, who reveals himself to the rest of the hostages, leaps from the train in pursuit the hijackers, sustaining injuries. Brown thinks he saw something fall off the train but when pressed for more information by Blue, decides it's not a problem.
Garber has become convinced that fleeing along such a predictable route is so poor an escape strategy that it must be a mere diversion, and that the hijackers must somehow have left the train and taken to the tunnels on foot. While most of the police are chasing the car, Garber and his superior, Inspector Daniels, follow his hunch.
Entering the South Ferry Loop, the driverless and dangerously fast car abruptly reaches a red signal and emergency brakes stop it; police there find the hijackers gone. The subway system had a separate fail-safe system built into the Loop that automatically overrode the automatic conduction and put up red stop lights when a train was over a certain speed limit, and the passengers are tossed around but have their lives saved by this device.
Back in the tunnel they stopped in, the hijackers confirm their final getaway plans, and leave behind the disguises and weapons that connect them to the crime. Grey refuses to give up his gun, and Blue shoots him dead. While the surviving conspirators are dividing Grey's share, the off-duty police officer, lying injured in the dark, fires his handgun at the three remaining hijackers, killing Brown. Blue fires back, wounding the officer. At Blue's instruction, Green makes his escape by ascending to street level, unnoticed, by the same route that Garber descends by moments later. Garber arrives after Green has left and when he comes upon Blue preparing to kill the wounded officer, he yells out and Blue then sees that Garber has him in his gunsights. Blue drops his gun, surrenders, and asks Garber whether the death penalty is still in force in New York. Garber says that no, it's not on the books anymore. Blue promptly electrocutes himself by stepping onto the third rail.
Patrone announces positive identification of the three dead hijackers. Blue was named Bernard Ryder, Grey a former Mafioso, and Brown a professional robber. Green, who survived and escaped, has left as a clue only the suspicion that he is an ex-motorman of the New York transit authority.
Later, Garber and Patrone are seen working their way through a list of former motormen seeking suspects. Harold Longman (whom the audience can recognize as having been Mr. Green) is at home, with his share of the ransom cash, when they interview him. They find his alibi weak, but decide to continue their work elsewhere, and start out the door. Longman sneezes, and Garber, ever polite, says "Gesundheit" on the way out. Just before closing the door, Garber peeks significantly back into the room again, the audience can tell he has remembered hearing Green's repeated sneezing over the radio during the hijacking, and the film ends.
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Production
[edit] Setting
Portions of the scenes in the tunnel were filmed on the old Court Street line in Brooklyn, which now serves as a track which links to the New York City Transit Museum. A reconstruction of a Transit Authority control center was built on a soundstage, rendered down to exact detail. Total box office was $16,550,000, and was filmed with a 5,000,000 budget.
The exterior NYC 'Command Post Center' street scenes shot above the subway train, during the cash negotiation scenes, where throngs of police and spectators gathered awaiting the ransom money, were filmed at the subway exit corner of 28th and Park Avenue South, in Manhattan.
[edit] Music
The score was composed and conducted by David Shire, and it remains his most popular score. The soundtrack album was the first CD release by Film Score Monthly, and was later released by Retrograde Records.[1] The end titles contain a more expansive arrangement of the theme, courtesy of Shire's wife at the time, Talia Shire, who suggested that he close out the score with a more traditional ode to New York.[2]
[edit] Reception
The film was well-received by critics; Rotten Tomatoes records a 100% positive reception from 32 reviews.[3]
[edit] Awards and honors
- 1976: Nominated, "Best Film Music"—David Shire
- 1976: Nominated, "Best Supporting Actor"—Martin Balsam
- 1975: Nominated, "Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium"—Peter Stone
[edit] Remakes
In 1998, the film was remade as a television movie with the same title, with Edward James Olmos in the Matthau role and Vincent D'Onofrio replacing Shaw as the senior hijacker. Although not particularly well received by critics or viewers, this version was reportedly more faithful to the book, though it updated the setting with new technologies.
Another remake, set in a post 9/11 New York City directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, was released in 2009.
[edit] Aftermath
Realizing that it would become too much of a reminder to the public, after this movie was released, the New York City Transit Authority, for many years, banned any schedule of a train leaving Pelham station either at 1:23 in the afternoon, or in the morning. Eventually this policy was rescinded, but in a kind of superstition, the dispatchers have generally avoided scheduling a Pelham train at 1:23.[4]
[edit] In popular culture
- The hijackers' system of referring to each other as colors, such as "Mr. Blue", was later used by Quentin Tarantino in his film Reservoir Dogs, and a group of other productions, most notably the TV series The Unit, in this case to hide the operators' military ranks and real names.
- The movie was the inspiration for Carter USM's song "The Taking of Peckham One Two Three".
- A reference to the movie appears in the lyric of the Beastie Boys' song "Sure Shot", on the 1994 album Ill Communication: "Well, it's the taking of Pelham, one, two, three / If you want a doodie rhyme then come see me"
- The song 'We Took Pelham' by Deadly Avenger, an artist on Shadow Records, is inspired by this film.
- The end title theme is a featured track on the DJ Food & DK album Now, Listen!.
- The title of the Doctor Who novel The Taking of Chelsea 426 by David Llewellyn is likely a play on the title of this film.
[edit] References
- ^ FSM-80123-2
- ^ Adams, Doug. CD liner notes
- ^ "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/taking_of_pelham_one_two_three/. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
- ^ Dwyer, Jim, "Subway lives : 24 hours in the life of the New York City subway", Crown, 1991, ISBN 051758445X
[edit] External links
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three at the Internet Movie Database
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three at the TCM Movie Database
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three at Allmovie
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