When the police car with the money was going up Broad Street I was in a class at Pace University and we were watching the filming out the window of our classroom. They did a bunch of takes about every 15 minutes or so.
Fantastic movie. As a New Yorker I really appreciate to the run through the streets. I am familiar with most of those streets and the run from downtown to midtown is fairly accurate. Right down to the wreck at bleaker street. Many I love it when a movie stays accurate to it's depicted location. Same with the subways as the train was in motion. They just don't do that anymore. Getting permission to film stuff like this in NY subways is probably next to impossible now.
It's that cynical sense of humor sprinkled frequently throughout the film. I like how uncertainty over whether the plainclothes cop among the hostages is a male or female resurfaces a few times until Garber later offers the injured long-haired officer, "We'll have an ambulance along in a jiffy, miss."
So a few things here : 1) brilliant character acting by everyone not just Matthau. 2) this movie is a salute to the New York accent. 3) Major League Baseball players should go back to showing the stirrups (not relevant here, but still true...and finally...rest in peace Lt. Rico Patrone!
Great music addition. Trivia: Famed stunt driver Joey Chitwood drove the police car that crashes. It was filmed on a cold Sunday morning in the Flat Iron district of lower Manhattan.
Astor Place, actually. Note that the newsstand was likely built specifically to be demolished in the crash and also to conceal the stunt ramp that causes the car to flip. Also note the crowd standing on the sidewalk to watch the stunt being performed.
So do I! The NYPD introduced that updated shade of blue to their motor pool less than a year before this production filmed, replacing a drab color scheme that looked like something from 1940. They applied the same color to all the wooden police barricades that were previously gray. In addition to the subway entrances 0:00, phone booths, city buses and subway cars, NYC wore a lot of blue in the 1970s.
Love how Matthau seems to say "woik" instead of "work" and "hoid" instead of "heard." Really pushing that NYC accent. Set must've smelled like a mix of pastrami, hot dogs from a Sabrett's cart and knishes / cannoli.
I do think the score used in the final version was better - a great track for a wonderful scene in one of the great underrated action movies of all time.
@0:37.. Poiny worth mentioning.. Whomever was driving that old beat up cop car is a good driver. To navigate that big old boat thru that tight spot with NON POWER STEERING at that speed is impressive
I used to say it would have added to the silence but I think it's better that they left it out because it just amplifies the tension already being felt.
After Inspector Daniels says they're at Center Street, north of Chambers Street, the delivery car made a right turn onto Wall Street from Broad Street.
I overlook that little geographical error as the film is just a great homage to the streets and subways of NYC. Reminds me so much of my younger days. I really appreciate that it was filmed entirely in NYC.
@@DC322 The filmmakers used the old US Custom House (USCH) building at Bowling Green as a stand-in for the Federal Reserve. The police car picks up the money in the courtyard of the USCH, drives up the ramp and hangs a left, heading east on Bridge Street. When this movie was filmed, the building was likely vacant because US Customs had just relocated to their new offices in the new World Trade Center around 1973. I work at the USCH building and it gets used a lot by TV and film crews. Spike Lee's "Inside Man" is another good heist movie that used this building for some scenes.
I assumed the editor felt the bold, brassy score competed too strongly with the loud sound FX of the racing police motorcade and the vital bits of dialogue between command center and the hijacked train.
The irony here is greater for NYers: when you need speed, you do NOT get in a car. Only the cops would have had the remotest chance of making it on time above ground, and look how that turned out…
This was a masterpiece the remake was an insult to the producers directors and writers of the original Denzel Washington think what you want of him but hes nowhere near as good as Walter Matthew Robert Shaw a in any way shape or form doing this kind of movie the directors the producers the editors the writers far far superior in that era then today's Hollywood.
True and it's not just the actors. This movie is pure 70's with great action scenes in the city then and the music score of the original is a real gem of the film. A remake can't touch all that and the original is very funny too.
Great placement of the cart vendor. One inconsiderate SOB thinks there isn't anybody else in the world but him and effs the whole plan up. Cops ought to have at least sheared the front off his bike.
They probably did do that, kicked his ass at the station, and then claim the crash did the damage and the injuries. It was the 1970s, you could get away with a lot more back then.
