The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Four hijackers, got up like Groucho Marx and led by Robert Shaw with the voice of a Dalek, kidnap a New York subway train and hold the city to ransom. Saviour of the system is Transit Authority Inspector Matthau, harking back to his early acting days as a grim heavy, and with a Bronx accent as thick and fancy as a piece of angel cake. It's a slice of Urban Crisis life, you see, and to prove it the occupants of the train 'represent a cross-section of New York: a pimp, a Puerto Rican pregnant girl, a hippie, a hooker, a WASP, a wino and a homosexual'. This movie's so up-to-date even the mayor's a laughing-stock. Yet, despite the caricature, the facile screenplay by Peter Stone, and the desperate direction from Sargent ('who has directed some of television's finest hours'), the film retains a fascination - the way Juggernaut did; and needless to say, it's been a monster hit in cities with an underground system.