May 1972 My friends and I decided to go to Yankee Stadium by subway. I was a green 14 year old raised on Long Island. I had a penchant for reading road maps as geography was my best subject. I tried to make heads or tails reading the very complex New York city subway map. The four of us rode the E train headed for the Seventh Avenue station where we changed trains. Conveniently the B train came rolling in across the platform. We ran into the train without checking the letter. I should have waited for a D train to complete the journey to the hallowed ball orchard in the Bronx. Now my friends and I are on the wrong train. Time to check the subway map. Unfortunately under the map was a man of color wearing a turban and reading scriptures from the Quran with use of a magnifying glass. I wasn't about to disturb the religious man but my friend Mark decided to go ahead and approach this man's space. Mark looked and looked for 161st Street and River Avenue station on the complicated board. The man felt that the boy was staring at him and said in an angered tone, "What stop you looking for , BOY! I said what stop you looking for?" Mark in desperation replied, "I found it. I found it!" Being a life long strap hanger, New York metro terminology for subway rider, I was drawn to this subway story of ransom,murder and the chain of events that lead up to the a subway ride for the ages. Four crooks plan to take a New York City subway train. Each wears a colored hat and bears the same name i.e. green hat, Mr. Green. One of the crooks is a New York City Motorman/Conductor Harold Longman AKA Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) who is the essential player in this ransom heist because of his knowledge of the Subway cars and system guidelines. Armed and motivated Mr. Green ousts the regular motorman well known actor James Broderick who would star on the hit TV show Family a few years later. The other colored hated rogues are played by popular TV Icon Earl Hindman (Mr. Brown) who found success on the hit TV show Home Improvement starring Tim Allen. You remember Earl who played the neighbor of reason Wilson only showing half his face behind a picket fence. That leads us to this strange connection of actors as our other partner swindler Mr. Grey is played by Hector Elizondo. Elizondo also co-stars with Tim Allen on the hit TV Show Last Man Standing. The star racketeer in all this is English Actor Robert Shaw Famous for his work in Jaws and Henry The VIII . AKA Mr.Blue the brains, the plotter, making the calls all the way as he demands one million dollars in cash within one hour or he'll shoot each passenger on a separate detached subway car each minute the authorities from the transit system are late. Enter Police Lt. Zack Garber (Walter Matthau) with his dead pan demeanor and wisecracking way of speaking to his co-workers. Matthau is a natural here. Not shouting or losing his cool but via a radio is the negotiator between ring leader Blue and the NYPD. The lives of the seventeen innocent passengers on that lone subway car are at stake. Nail biting action throughout with funny lines thrown in to relieve the tension. A race to the finish but this movie doesn't end with a bang. An anachronism of sorts as the Mayor is portrayed by Lee Wallace who bears a striking resemblance to former Mayor Ed Koch but during the film Abe Beame was mayor. Koch was elected four years later. Uncanny! Honorable mention to Jerry Stiller as Lt Rico Patrone. I particularly enjoyed the negotiating between Matthau and Shaw which was riveting as well as entertaining. Back to my personal experience on the train ride to the Bronx. As for anxious moments on the subway trip to the Bronx, the disturbed turban clad man confronted the rest of us as he stood and said, "You need a shield to fight, without that shield there is no fight." Decades later I still don't understand the hidden meaning of that parable. Gesundheit!
