New York Transit: 50TH Anniversary of NEW YORK TRANSIT MUSEUM

“NYC IN TRANSIT,” a weekly series about the role of the city’s subway system–along with its trolleys, buses and former “El”– in movies from the early to late 20th century, will run at Film Forum beginning Tue, July 28 and continuing with select screenings through early fall.

The festival, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the New York Transit Museum, shows films that transform trains, stations, streets, and platforms into places of romance, comedy, thrills, and suspense.

Says Bruce Goldstein, programmer of the series, “New York’s subway system has played key roles in movies almost since it opened in 1904. To this day, studios in Hollywood still have facsimiles of actual New York subway entrances on their New York streets and some of the studios once had standing New York subway station sets. London’s Underground and Paris’ Métro have also been vividly portrayed in films, but it’s safe to say that no subway has fascinated audiences and moviemakers more–or been portrayed more–than New York’s.”

The festival opens with the silent comedy SPEEDY (1928), starring Harold Lloyd as the conductor of the last horse-drawn trolley in New York (the line, which ran on Bleecker Street, just a few blocks away from Film Forum, actually closed down in 1917).

Says Goldstein, “Until that time, SPEEDY was the most ambitious Hollywood production ever to invade Manhattan and Brooklyn and it may be the most vivid filmic record of what the city looked like at the height of the Jazz Age. It also features a hilarious guest appearance by Babe Ruth, the most celebrated sports figure of the 1920s – his meeting with Harold Lloyd, the era’s most popular comedian, was the 1920s equivalent of the Beatles meeting Muhammad Ali in the 1960s.”

Says Jodi Shapiro, Curator, New York Transit Museum, “As the New York Transit Museum celebrates 50 years of preserving and sharing the city’s transit stories, we’re thrilled to partner with an institution that loves New York’s transit system as much as we do. This series recognizes what New Yorkers have always known: the transit system is one of the city’s great storytellers. Whether captured in Hollywood features or preserved in archival films from the Museum’s collection, these moving images show more than 80 years of transit history.”

Special events in the festival include a program of subway films from the collection of the Transit Museum dating back to 1905 (less than a year after the system opened), introduced by Jodi Shapiro, Curator at the Museum, and a special presentation by Goldstein preceding the 1974 subway thriller THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, illustrating the movie’s careful attention to detail (and with clips from other movies that got it wrong).

The New York Transit Museum is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history and one of the premier institutions of its kind in the world. Founded in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration, the Museum is housed in a historic 1936 subway station in Downtown Brooklyn and has grown into a beloved cultural institution with a collection of more than one million objects. As it marks its 50th anniversary, the Transit Museum continues to preserve and share the stories of mass transportation and the people who make it possible through exhibitions, educational programs, public events, and one-of-a-kind experiences. The Museum also operates a Gallery & Store in Grand Central Terminal and a Shop at 2 Broadway in lower Manhattan. To learn more, visit nytransitmuseum.org.

Public Screening Schedule
(subject to change; check web for latest)

SPEEDY
U.S., 1928
Directed by Ted Wilde
Starring Harold Lloyd, Babe Ruth
Approx. 85 min. 35mm print courtesy Harold Lloyd Trust.

Followed by…

In the Footsteps of Speedy (2015, Bruce Goldstein, 30 min.)
In this acclaimed documentary, Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Founding Repertory Artistic Director, takes us on a tour of the NYC locations captured by Lloyd and his Hollywood crew around Sheridan Square (only steps away from Film Forum) – along with vivid scenes shot in Washington Square, Coney Island, Times Square, Sutton Place, Williamsburg, and the old Yankee Stadium. Edited by William Hohauser.

Tuesday, July 28 at 7:00
Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner ♪
Introduced by Bruce Goldstein

THE NAKED CITY
U.S., 1948
Directed by Jules Dassin
Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
Produced by Mark Hellinger
Photographed by William Daniels
Approx. 96 min.

Followed by…

Uncovering The Naked City (2020, Bruce Goldstein, 23 min.)
In this original short documentary and personal essay, Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Founding Repertory Artistic Director, tracks down many of the 100+ New York City locations—from the Bronx to the Lower East Side—used in his friend Jules Dassin’s classic police procedural, while also spotlighting the contributions of producer Mark Hellinger and cinematographer William Daniels, with an on-set appearance by 19-year-old photographer Stanley Kubrick. Edited by William Hohauser.

Tuesday, August 4 at 7:00
Introduced by Bruce Goldstein

THE FRENCH CONNECTION
U.S., 1971
Directed by William Friedkin
Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey
Photographed by Owen Roizman
Approx. 104 min. 35mm.

Tuesday, August 11 at 7:20

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE 
U.S., 1974
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Screenplay by Peter Stone
Photographed by Owen Roizman
Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Héctor Elizondo, Martin Balsam, Jerry Stiller, and the downtown #6 train.
Approx. 104 min. 35mm.

Tuesday, August 18 at 8:10
Introduced by Bruce Goldstein, with a special presentation showing the film’s precise details