{"id":289559,"date":"2026-07-07T20:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/289559\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:11","slug":"nyc-in-transit-a-new-film-festival-kicks-off-featuring-nyc-subways-in-classic-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/289559\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018NYC in Transit\u2019: A new film festival kicks off featuring NYC subways in classic movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Train enthusiasts, movie fans and NYC history buffs are sure to enjoy \u201cNYC in Transit<\/a>,\u201d a film festival kicking off this month that celebrates the city\u2019s subway system and its starring role in classic big-screen flicks.<\/p>\n

Beginning July 28 and continuing on Tuesdays through early fall, the Film Forum in the West Village will host a weekly series spotlighting the role of the city\u2019s subway system\u2013along with its trolleys, buses and former \u201cEl\u201d\u2013 in movies from the early to late 20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the films to be screened are \u201cThe Naked City,\u201d \u201cThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three\u201d from 1974, the \u201cFrench Connection\u201d and \u201cThe Warriors.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The festival coincides with the 50th anniversary of the New York Transit Museum<\/a>. According to organizers, the event will show films that transform trains, stations, streets and platforms into places of romance, comedy, thrills, and suspense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York\u2019s subway system has played key roles in movies almost since it opened in 1904,\u201d said Bruce Goldstein, producer and programmer of the series. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival opens with the silent comedy \u201cSpeedy\u201d from 1928, starring Harold Lloyd as a trolley conductor. According to Goldstein, it was Hollywood\u2019s most ambitious New York production at the time, offering a look at the Jazz Age in Manhattan and Brooklyn, along with a cameo by a sports legend who today is still a household name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also features a hilarious guest appearance by Babe Ruth, the most celebrated sports figure of the 1920s \u2013 his meeting with Harold Lloyd, the era\u2019s most popular comedian, was the 1920s equivalent of the Beatles meeting Muhammad Ali in the 1960s,\u201d Goldstein explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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. There will also be a special presentation by Goldstein preceding \u201cThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three,\u201d illustrating the movie\u2019s careful attention to detail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

General admission is $18; More ticket information is available at filmforum.org<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Public screening schedule for NYC in Transit\u00a0
\nSpeedy, 1928<\/p>\n

July 28, 7 p.m.
Directed by Ted Wilde
Starring Harold Lloyd, Babe Ruth
Approx. 85 min.\u00a0
Followed by: In the Footsteps of Speedy (2015, Bruce Goldstein, 30 min.)
Bruce Goldstein tours the NYC locations captured by Lloyd and his Hollywood crew around Sheridan Square (steps away from Film Forum) \u2013 along with vivid scenes shot in Washington Square, Coney Island, Times Square, Sutton Place, Williamsburg, and the old Yankee Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Naked City, 1948<\/p>\n

Aug. 4, 7 p.m.
Directed by Jules Dassin
Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
Produced by Mark Hellinger
Photographed by William Daniels
Approx. 96 minutes
Followed by: Uncovering The Naked City\u00a0(2020, Bruce Goldstein, 23 min.)
Bruce Goldstein tracks down many of the NYC locations used in his friend Jules Dassin\u2019s classic police procedural, while also spotlighting the contributions of producer Mark Hellinger and cinematographer William Daniels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The French Connection, 1971<\/p>\n

Aug. 11, 7:20 p.m.
Directed by William Friedkin
Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey
Photographed by Owen Roizman
Approx. 104 minutes<\/p>\n

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, 1974<\/p>\n

Aug. 18, 8:10 p.m.
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Screenplay by Peter Stone
Photographed by Owen Roizman
Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, H\u00e9ctor Elizondo, Martin Balsam, Jerry Stiller, and the downtown #6 train.\u00a0
Approx. 104 min.\u00a0
Introduced by Bruce Goldstein, with a special presentation showing the film\u2019s precise details<\/p>\n

Tracking Shots: Films from the New York Transit Museum\u2019s Archives<\/p>\n

Aug. 25, 6 p.m.
A program of rare films from the Museum\u2019s own archive; introduced by Jodi Shapiro.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The Warriors, 1979<\/p>\n

Sept. 1, 8 p.m.
Directed by Walter Hill
Starring Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, Brian Tyler
Approx. 90 min.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

East Side, West Side, 1927<\/p>\n

Sept. 8, 5:40 p.m.
Written and Directed by Allan Dwan
Starring George O\u2019Brien, Virginia Valli, J. Farrell MacDonald.
Includes actuality footage of an NYC subway line under construction.
Approx. 90 min. 4K restoration courtesy the Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n

Stations of the Elevated, 1981<\/p>\n

Sept. 22, 6 p.m.
Directed by Manfred Kirchheimer
Approx. 45 min.
With One More Time (2021, Co-produced by Jake Perlin. Approx. 17 min.) A coda to the recent trilogy of films \u2013 Dream of a City, Free Time, and Up the Lazy River \u2013 of never-before-seen footage shot by Kirchheimer and Walter Hess beginning in 1958 through Stations of the Elevated.<\/p>\n

Dutchman, 1966<\/p>\n

Sept. 29, 6 p.m.
Directed by Anthony Harvey\u00a0
Starring Shirley Knight, Al Freeman Jr.\u00a0
Based on the 1964 play by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
Approx. 55 min.\u00a0
Preceded by a sequence from Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s Masculine Feminine, parodying Jones\u2019 play. With \u201cThe Candy Machine.\u201d (George Griffin, 1972)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Train enthusiasts, movie fans and NYC history buffs are sure to enjoy \u201cNYC in Transit,\u201d a film festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21276,53868,75,9,11,10,110670,1210],"class_list":["post-289559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-film-festival","tag-film-forum","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nyc-scenes-in-movies","tag-nyc-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}