Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Taking of Pelham 123
The classic The Taking of Pelham 123 is one of my favorite New York movies (the 1974 original, of course). One particular scene has a police car crashing as it races to catch the hijacked train, and was filmed on Lafayette. Some screen grabs are below.
A motorcycle flips as a police car races up Lafayette. You can see Alamo, better know as The Cube, on the left of the frame (it was installed in 1967). Also note that the uptown 6 entrance does not yet have the reproduction kiosk which was added as part of the station renovation in 1986. I always found this shot humorous with the locals obviously watching the filming on the right of the frame and elsewhere.
Yes, there was a time before Astor Place had a Starbucks.
Just like living in Hollywood!
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3 comments:
In the screen grab - where the Starbucks exists now is a store called Gourmet Treats. When I worked at the Public Theater in 1979 we called it Gourmet Threats because of the dubious quality of their food.
"Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (the original) was in my NetFlix queue for a while. After seeing this post, I upped its place and line and received it Saturday night. Watched it, loved it, and on Sunday walked right on over to Astor Place to drink in the sights and picture them as they were in the movie. 'Just over there is where the car flipped' and 'Here I stand where the truck righted the cop car' were a couple of thoughts that went through my head. It felt so romantic!
I was a student at Cooper Union when the scene was filmed. Practically the entire school was out there watching. They staged the car flip by building a fake news stand with a ramp inside of it. The police car crashed into the stand, two wheels went up the ramp, and it flipped over. The car had a roll bar, and the stuntman climbed out to applause. Better than your normal day of class.
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