Trivia for
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) More at IMDbPro »

• Walter Matthau says "gesundheit" three times during the movie.
  
  
• The Transit Authority (TA) of New York at first refused to allow the film to be shot on the actual New York subway. They feared it would lead to imitative crime (it didn't, but their position was shown to be reasonable when the later film Money Train (1995) apparently did). Associate producer Stephen F. Kesten was equally adamant that no other city's subway could be credibly used (and he was apparently right: see the goofs entry for the remake The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998) (TV)). The TA finally did cooperate after Mayor John V. Lindsay intervened, but they required United Artists to buy anti-hijacking insurance at a cost of $75,000 in addition to paying $275,000 for the use of the subway.
  
  
• Walter Matthau had not been on the New York subway in many years at the time this movie was made even though he was born and raised in New York.
  
  
• Filmed mostly in the tunnels leading to the decommissioned IND Court St. station in Brooklyn. The station itself served as Grand Central and 28th St., and it is currently the home of the New York City Transit Museum.
  
  
• Ever since the release of the film, no #6 train has ever been scheduled to leave Pelham Bay Park at either 13:23 or 01:23.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg was considered as director.
  
  
• In a TVO (Ontario, Canada) interview, the producer said that this film did terrific box office in New York, Toronto, London and Paris - all cities with subways - but was considered a flop in the rest of the world.
  
  
• Composer David Shire was asked to extend the end credits piece of score to allow for extra time/credits added in. His then wife, Talia Shire, suggested that he write in an adaption of the theme that reflected a more romantic view of New York city, to contrast the gritty sounds used for the film's main score. David Shire adopted this approach in the extended passage.
  
  
• David Shire's score was chosen as one of the top 10 film scores of all time by NPR film music expert Andy Trudeau.
  
  
• Filming of the subway scenes began in late November 1973 and lasted through January 1974. Though the scenes were filmed on a track that had been out of use since the 1940s, they were close enough to the still functioning A and E lines that takes had to be done in between those trains coming through (to and from Hoyt-Schermerhorn station) because of their noise and lights.
  
  
• One of Robert Shaw's favorite pastimes during downtime of filming was playing ping-pong on tables set up on the station's concourse. He reportedly badly beat all challengers.
  
  
• The actor that played the role of Subway Guard was named Jim Pelham.
  
  
• When frustrated by the situation on the subway train, the Mayor blurts out, "Shit, piss, fuck!" These are, in order, the first three of the seven words you can't say on television for which George Carlin is famous.
  
  
• The color of the hats worn by each of the four villains, Grey, Green, Blue, Brown correspond to their names.
  
  

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