Production History (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) was shot on location in New York City from November 1973 through late April 1974 on a budget of approximately $3.8 million. The production required eight weeks of filming inside subway tunnels, the cooperation of a Transit Authority that initially refused to participate, and a director whom the New York crew did not want.

The Transit Authority refused, then demanded extraordinary conditions

The New York City Transit Authority's first response was no. Eight weeks of negotiation followed, with the Mayor's office eventually brokering a deal. The TA's concerns were not about logistics — they were about liability. The film depicted a crime that had never happened, and the TA feared it would inspire one.

The conditions were severe: a $250,000 location fee, $20 million in insurance policies — including what the production called "kook coverage," insurance against copycat hijacking attempts inspired by the film — and a requirement that all subway cars appear completely graffiti-free. Joseph Sargent found the last demand absurd for a film set in 1974 New York.

"New Yorkers are going to hoot when they see our spotless subway cars. But the TA was adamant on that score. They said to show graffiti would be to glorify it. We argued that it was artistically expressive. But we got nowhere. They said the graffiti fad would be dead by the time the movie got out. I really doubt that." — Joseph Sargent, Los Angeles Times (1974)

"Those TA people... are super careful. They anticipate everything." — Joseph Sargent, Los Angeles Times (1974)

Screenwriter Peter Stone added a fictional override mechanism to the script — a plot device the production called "The Gimmick" — so the film would not serve as a realistic hijacking manual. Sargent accepted the modification without argument.

"We're making a movie, not a handbook on subway hijacking. It's important that we don't be too plausible. We're counting on the film's style and charm and comedy to say, subliminally at least, 'Don't take us too seriously.'" — Joseph Sargent, Los Angeles Times (1974)

The closing credits include a note acknowledging the "outstanding cooperation" of the City of New York, followed by a disclaimer: the Transit Authority "is not responsible for the plot, story and characters." For years after the film's release, the NYC Transit Authority avoided scheduling trains to leave Pelham Bay Park station at 1:23.

The primary tunnel location was an abandoned station

The production filmed its subway tunnel sequences in the Court Street station on the IND Fulton Street Line in Brooklyn, which had been closed to the public since 1946. (The station later became the New York Transit Museum.) Eight weeks of the shoot took place underground. A replica of the Transit Authority's Brooklyn control center was built at Filmways Studios in East Harlem.

Street exteriors used the subway entrance at 28th Street and Park Avenue South in Manhattan. The Gracie Mansion scenes were shot at the real Gracie Mansion for exteriors and at Wave Hill, a nineteenth-century mansion in Riverdale, for interiors. The production covered four of the five boroughs — everything except Staten Island. (wikipedia, onthesetofnewyork)

Sargent was treated as a Hollywood interloper

Joseph Sargent was born in New York but had been working in Hollywood television. The East Coast–based producers had preferred a different director, and the resentment filtered through the entire crew. Sargent recalled it starting at the top and working its way down.

"It then moved from there and trickled down to the crew, which had resentment to this smart-ass director being sent from Hollywood to show them how to make movies." — Joseph Sargent, DGA Visual History Interview

Roizman solved the tunnel lighting problem with pre-flashing

Owen Roizman shot the film in anamorphic Panavision — a format that requires more light than spherical lenses. Inside subway tunnels with almost no usable illumination, this was a significant problem. His solution was to have Movielab pre-flash the 100-speed negative at twenty percent before shooting, gaining roughly two stops of effective speed. It was the first feature to use Movielab's flash process and cut five days off the production schedule.

"Pelham had a realistic scariness to it, and one of the ways to get that scariness was to create a mood that was real, like it could happen. So that is the approach that I took to doing it." — Owen Roizman, ASC In Memoriam (2023)

See Owen Roizman for the full account of his cinematographic approach, including the anamorphic decision and the emergency-lighting rig built into the subway car fixtures.