MOVIES WRITTEN IN STONE Part Two

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974: Dir. Joseph Sargent)

Stone with a harder edge. That would describe screenwriter Peter Stone's adaptation of John Godey's bestselling thriller about a New York Subway hijacking. As far away from his cloak and dagger jet setting style of Charade and its followup Arabesque (1966), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a loud nervy heist film, with overtones of urban terrorism. The mid-Seventies was an era of seeming lawlessness in New York City, with an impotent mayor Ed Koch unable to curb the rising crime rate. Despite being born in Los Angeles, Stone perfectly captures this New York state of mind, liberally applying salty vulgarities to escalate the squabbling tensions between the impatient politically-minded bureaucrats and their brash working stiff subordinates. A deadpan Walter Matthau stars, in his third Stone-authored script, as the wily Transit Authority cop, whose bloodhound-like mug is an immediate indication of  his crime-solving tenacity. Matthau's nemesis is a ruthless thief played by Robert Shaw with a cold remorselessness that is pleasingly contrasted with the cuddly warmth of his reluctant partner-in-crime Martin Balsam. As its action careens from one New York location to another, Stone thoughtfully provides the viewer with an omniscient vantage point, while never compromising the inherent suspense of each twist of the story as it relentlessly speeds towards its realistically small scale, but satisfyingly clever fade-out. DVD & BLU-RAY