The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Right away, this film grabs you and doesn't let go. Every character plays their role notably and astoundingly. Of course the film was shot entirely on location in New York including the subway scenes, which helped significantly.

Walter Matthau delivers one of his greatest performances as a sarcastic cynical Transit Police Officer matching wits with a band of ruthless terrorists who have hijacked a subway car demanding a million dollar ransom for the release of its passengers. Robert Shaw is absolutely unforgettable as the cold-blooded terrorist leader. His British accent and cultured, sophisticated performance make for a wonderfully evil criminal who hisses his lines like a deadly snake. Shaw's villain is an icy monster who never looses his composure, he even absent mindedly works crossword puzzles while waiting for the ransom to be delivered, and thinks no more of killing innocent hostages than breaking wind.

The planned assault is that four men, Robert Shaw, Earl… more »

Right away, this film grabs you and doesn't let go. Every character plays their role notably and astoundingly. Of course the film was shot entirely on location in New York including the subway scenes, which helped significantly.

Walter Matthau delivers one of his greatest performances as a sarcastic cynical Transit Police Officer matching wits with a band of ruthless terrorists who have hijacked a subway car demanding a million dollar ransom for the release of its passengers. Robert Shaw is absolutely unforgettable as the cold-blooded terrorist leader. His British accent and cultured, sophisticated performance make for a wonderfully evil criminal who hisses his lines like a deadly snake. Shaw's villain is an icy monster who never looses his composure, he even absent mindedly works crossword puzzles while waiting for the ransom to be delivered, and thinks no more of killing innocent hostages than breaking wind.

The planned assault is that four men, Robert Shaw, Earl Hindman, Hector Elizondo, and Martin Balsam mount a carefully planned assault on a subway train, coming out of Pelham Bay station in the Bronx in mid-Manhattan and hold this plus all of its passengers underground for the ransom of a million dollars.

The leader of the assault team is Robert Shaw in one of his finest roles, a former British army officer and a cold-blooded mercenary. During the interim route to the hijacking of the Pelham 123 train, they kill a station supervisor played by Tom Pedi, thus establishing their cold-blooded intensions.

A group of heavily armed men, all wearing the same disguises board the subway train underneath the streets of New York. They quickly take over the train and hold seventeen passengers hostage. They look and talk like professionals, and to prevent identification use codenames like, Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr White and Mr Black. Are these just maniacs without a plan? And if they do have a plan, how are they all going to escape alive with all the exits to the subway blocked by the police? Even the Mayor is portrayed as a weak, fumbling, ineffective city leader. Tony Roberts has a very good role as the tough as nails Deputy Mayor concerned about both his boss's political career and resolving the crisis quickly.

The storyline generates enough suspense to keep you spellbound and most of all, a realistic and engrossing storyline. You will literally be on the edge of your seat, wondering where the next plot twist will take you. You can without difficulty see where Quentin Tarantino borrowed ideas from this movie to make "Reservoir Of Dogs" giving codenames to all the villains, and in my humble opinion, this film makes "Reservoir Dogs" look like a second rate film.

Such a great pity most people are not familiar with this original movie as it doesn't have the allure or big star power such as the later release with John Travolta and Denzel Washington to draw in new fans seeking out a great film to watch. If you happen to run across the original "Taking Of Pelham 123" . . . . . though, do not pass it up!