Pelham 1, 2...

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was a hit novel which was rapidly transformed, in 1974, into a thriller:


It was a fairly early example of the now-well established Hollywood tradition of making the uber-baddy a very well-spoken Englishman (though Robert Shaw's cut-glass accent is almost a parody), but the film's real star is Walter Matthau.

I associate Matthau more with playing the grumpy old man in underpowered comedies, and in this straight role he never quite shakes off the sense that he's slumming it or, rather, secretly hoping for laughs.


Though I love his rather daring shirt/tie combo.

Did I say he was the real star? I was talking rubbish: the real star is, of course, the New York subway system.


The staff are mostly shouty belligerents (or impeccably polite guards -- but you know they're bound to be killed).

For reasons I can't begin to fathom, someone somewhere sat down and thought "I know: what we need is a remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. But to show how up-to-date we are, we'll call it The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3".

Creativity in action.


Walter Matthau has been replaced by Denzel Washington (a swap that, I have to say, works very well indeed).

But Robert Shaw has been replaced by John Travolta, and that doesn't work. At all.


On the plus side, the new film also features some jolly totty -- at this point I'd cite Ramon Rodriguez and Alex Kaluzhsky -- and it makes rather good use of the subway (even if the control room graphics would be more at home in the playroom than the nerve centre of a complex urban metro system).


Having expected to hate the second film in comparison with the first, I now feel it's more of a no-score draw.

There's a turn-up.