The Taking of Pelham 123 ****½ (1974, Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, Jerry Stiller, Tony Roberts, James Broderick, Kenneth McMillan) – Classic Movie Review 4,007

The super-charged 1974 action crime thriller film The Taking of Pelham 123 is the real deal. Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo are irreplaceable. 

It has been remade twice, but director Joseph Sargent’s original super-charged 1974 action crime thriller The Taking of Pelham 123 [The Taking of Pelham One Two Three] is the real-deal business. Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo are irreplaceable.

Pelham 123 is the New York subway train that brutal British crook Mr Blue (Robert Shaw), his sneezy sidekick Mr Green (Martin Balsam) and their little gang of Mr Grey (Hector Elizondo) and Mr Brown (Earl Hindman) decide to hijack, for $1 million ransom. If the authorities don’t come up with the cash and do exactly what they are told, the hostages they take will be killed one by one. However, the cynical, racist, wisecracking transport detective, Police Lieutenant Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau), has other ideas…

This is a tremendous, intelligent, sizzlingly exciting action crime thriller, packed with a precious cargo of great, edge-of-seat suspense, excellent, realistic performances and convincing dialogue riddled with wry humour. There is a really special ensemble cast and, above all, it is particularly satisfying to see Matthau relishing one of his rare serious roles for once, though of course he can’t help being amusing too.

Shaw is a tremendous villain, pitching it snarlingly low key, just right. He makes the character very sinister and nasty indeed. Balsam and Elizondo are real good bad company too.

Sargent directs it all extremely incisively and sharply indeed on the flavoursome grungy Manhattan locations of the day, keeping it driving dynamically along. It is nail-biting stuff, with a cute ending, though perhaps it won’t make your train journey home any happier.

It co-stars James Broderick as the train conductor Denny Doyle, Tony Roberts as the Mayor’s deputy Warren LaSalle, Jerry Stiller as Lt. Rico Patrone, Kenneth McMillan as the Borough Commander, Dick O’Neill as Correll, Lee Wallace as the Mayor of New York City, Tom Pedi as Caz Dolowicz, Beatrice Winde as Mrs Jenkins, Nathan George as Patrolman James, Rudy Bond as the Police Commissioner, Doris Roberts as the Mayor’s Wife, and Julius Harris as Inspector Daniels.

Also in the cast are Cynthia Belgrave, Anna Berger, Gary Bolling, Carol Cole, Alex Colon, Joe Fields, Mari Gorman, Michael Gorrin, Thomas La Fleur, Marîa Landa, Louise Larabee, George Lee Miles, Carolyn Nelson, Eric O’Hanlan, Barry Snyder, Walter Jones, Jerry Holland, Robert Weil, Tim Myers, Simon Deckard, Sal Viscuso, Tony Fasce and Burtt Harris.

The real-life Mayor of New York City John Lindsay stepped in to persuade the reluctant New York City Transit Authority to give permission for the all-important location filming.

The TA required the producers to take out $20 million in insurance policies, including special ‘kook coverage’ in case the movie inspired a real-life hijacking. They were also paid $250,000 for the use of the track, station, subway cars and TA personnel. And the TA also adamantly insisted that no graffiti appeared in the film. Sargent said: ‘New Yorkers are going to hoot when they see our spotless subway cars.’

For many years after, the Transit Authority banned any train leaving Pelham station at 1:23 and even now the dispatchers have generally avoided scheduling a Pelham train at 1:23.

Peter Stone makes a grand job of the screenplay, with salty, non-PC dialogue and exiting incident, based on the 1973 novel by Morton Freedgood, writing under the pen name of John Godey. Stone gave the hijackers their colour code names, with hats in matching colours, gave Harold Longman (Martin Balsam) his tell-tale cold, made a fictional override mechanism in the motorman’s cab the linchpin of the script, and beefed up Walter Matthau’s role.

Matthau said: ‘I like the piece. It moves swiftly and stays interesting right down to the wire. That’s the reason I wanted to do it. The TA inspector I play is really a supporting role – they built it up a bit when I expressed interest in it –but it’s still secondary.’

Sargent said: ‘We’re making a movie, not a handbook on subway hijacking. It’s important that we don’t be too plausible. We’re counting on the film’s style and charm and comedy to say, subliminally at least, “Don’t take us too seriously”.’

David Shire’s urgent, jazzy score is a Seventies thriller highspot.

The Taking of Pelham 123 opened in New York on 2 October 1974 and was released in the UK on 24 February 1975.

The budget was $3.8 million and it earned $18.7 million at the box office.

The Taking of Pelham 123 [The Taking of Pelham One Two Three] is directed by Joseph Sargent, runs 104 minutes, is made by Palomar Pictures and Palladium Productions, is released by United Artists, is written by Peter Stone, based on the novel by John Godey, is shot in DeLuxe colour and Panavision by Owen Roizman and Enrique Bravo, is produced by Gabriel Katzka and Edgar J Scherick, is scored by David Shire and designed by Gene Rudolf.

Quentin Tarantino ‘borrowed’ the idea of colour-coded villains for Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Robert Shaw in The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974).

It was remade for TV in 1998 with Edward James Olmos, Vincent D’Onofrio and Donnie Wahlberg, and again for the cinema in 2009 The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

Lee Wallace who plays the flu-afflicted, rather dim and dithering Mayor so amusingly, died on December 20, 2020 in New York.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,007

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