FASTER THAN A NEW YORK MINUTE......WE GO OFF THE RAILS FOR "THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE"

The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)    1971's "The French Connection" ushered in a whole new genre.......
 
              ........the New York Urban Hell Western.........

              With New York City buried under an avalanche of uncollected garbage, porno theaters and an army of muggers and thugs running rampant on the streets........Hollywood saw box-office gold....

                And the films rolled out like clockwork throughout the 70's decade,  filled to the brim with vigilante cops, New Yorkers spewing hateful foul language at each other........and most importantly, rivers of blood, from both thugs and innocent bystanders alike.....

               You could kiss goodbye the fairy tale/Christmas snow globe New York depicted in films like "Breakfast At Tiffany's" and "The World Of Henry Orient".......

                If Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly ever tried wandering around in a 1970's New York movie, chances are she'd end up beaten to a pulp, raped and accidentally or intentionally shot dead

                 Sooner or later, someone was going to finally make a New York Urban Hell Western that fully embraced the sick, dark humor in this ghastly Dante's Inferno of a city.....

                 And oh boy did this movie deliver the full package........balancing suspense, action, random brutal violence, the full angry, contentious diversity of New Yorkers........along with a host of civil servants whose overwhelming cynicism keeps them detached and casually amused by the chaotic cesspool they swim in......

                  Kicking off with David Shire's urgent, immediately pulsating score (now considered a classic), no time's wasted setting up the premise.......a subway car of hostages held for a million dollar ransom by an armed quartet in matching overcoats, fedoras, mustaches and aviator glasses.

                  Three of them, including the leader (Robert Shaw, Earl Hindman, Hector Elizondo) are cold hearted, remorseless killers...(with Elizondo especially trigger happy and psychotic). The fourth, a sad sack, ex subway motorman (Martin Balsam) has been recruited to operate the train........with an especially clever way to confound the police who've surrounded the train, mistakenly thinking there's no way for this bunch to escape......

                   At ground level, the various wisecracking, incredulous members of law enforcement (Walter Matthau, Jerry Stiller, Julius Harris, Kenneth McMillan) scramble to gather up a million bucks from the unpopular, flu-ridden (literally snivelling) mayor (Lee Wallace). They race to get the cash delivered to the icy, stoic Shaw before he makes good on his promise to begin executing the cowering passengers.

                   Priceless one-liners and bullets fire off with equal abandon and the film never slows down for even a New York minute as it spews out the thrills while slickly lampooning a grungy city gone awry.

                  Pay no attention to the 2009 remake, pretend it doesn't exist.......this is the one and only "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three".  And after a long dry spell of not giving out the BQ's highest rating, we're tickled to roll out 5 stars (*****) an official FIND OF FINDS.