The Taking of Pelham 123
1974. Directed by someone named Joseph Sargent.
The direction isn’t bad at all, but Mr. Sargent, who is still among the living, worked mostly in TV afterward. Wonder why.
THE SHOT: Robert Shaw et alia hijack a subway train. They want one MILLION dollars from a cash-strapped New York to let it go. They have an INGENIOUS plan for escape. Or at least I think they do, it’s never explained exactly how it works.
TONE: Pure gritty 70s realism. Almost Dog Day Afternoon in its level of verisimilitude. Complex action and chase scenes in real New York locations, using real New York people and, most impressively, real New York subway stations. A great cast mostly disappears into their roles, which are purely functional. Some of my favorite character actors, including Kenneth McMillan, Julius Harris, Martin Balsam, Jerry Stiler and James Broderick. Iron-Eyes Cody makes an appearance in a subway car ad, and Tony Roberts showboats as a pushy mayoral aide. Robert Weil looks exactly the same in this movie as he does in The Hudsucker Proxy, almost 20 years later. Walther Matthau is the harried, efficient but unimpressed guy trying to stop the crime.
The use of “New York flavor,” involving bickering ethnics, hassled bueraucrats and traffic snarls is well-used. The makers of Die Hard With A Vengeance studied this movie to get the same flavor. Everybody’s got a story, everybody’s got a personal observation. Doesn’t matter how tense the situation is or how tight time is, everyone is going to bicker about tiny little things. It works.
Didn’t realize until now that the whole “criminals calling each other by colors” Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, etc, comes from here and not Reservoir Dogs. Live and learn.
SMALL CONTRIVANCES: In a narrative this tight, anything contrived sticks out a mile. In this case, Martin Balsam has a bad cold. Turns out to be a major plot point. Likewise, one of the subway passengers, we learn, is an undercover cop.
In the biggest cliche of all, one of the hijackers is a trigger-happy psycho. In an inversion of the cliche, he’s played by Gavin McLeod.
DOES CRIME PAY? Heavens no.
Bank Shot
1974. Directed by Gower Champion.
THE SHOT: George C. Scott and his crew will not rob a bank, they will steal a bank. A bank is building a new location and has a temporary bank set up in a mobile home in a mall parking lot. Scott and Co. will jack up the trailer, put it on wheels and tow it away with the guards still in it.
TONE: Cartoonish, garish, abrasive. Gritty 70s realism passed this caper by. Lots of “zany characters.” One wears a straw boater and drives a 20s automobile. One lives with his crazy mother. One is a black radical named Herman X. Scott himself has a lisp for some reason. All these zany touches are announced but never developed.
Bob Balaban is in this, looking all of 16 years old. Close Encounters was three years off. I think he spent the time growing his beard. Joanna Cassidy is also on hand, and is quite funny and refreshing, honestly the most watchable performance in the movie.
REALISM: None. Action is cartoonish and slapsticky. Police procedures make no sense. This is the kind of movie where the protagonist is described as a “genius” and “the best bank-robber in history” but surrounds himself with drooling idiots and takes advice from clowns.
DOES CRIME PAY? No. The money (SPOILER ALERT) goes off a cliff and into the sea. Scott swims from Santa Monica to Samoa (that is not a misprint).