MovieChat Forums > Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Discussion > Semi-Obscure New York Films

Semi-Obscure New York Films

posted 16 years ago by discreetcharmofthevagina
20 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody know any kind of more under-the-radar New York films? A lot of the time when you bring this topic up people always rush to say Taxi Driver, Godfather Part II, Brother From Another Planet, The Warriors, Woody Allen's films, Mean Streets, Naked City, Sweet Smell of Success, etc. but those are all obvious answers...

Here are more along the lines of what I'm looking for, please add to the list...

Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
Blast of Silence (1961)
Fingers (1978)
The Seven Ups (1973)
Cops and Robbers (1973)

... I know those are mostly crime films but anything can help. And please no all studio-filmed stuff set in New York but not actually filmed here.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dudebert 16 years ago

working girl
fall
hair
escape from NY
on the waterfront
i am legend
wall st
splash
nighthawks
scrooged
coogan's bluff
fisher king
cloverfield

the dudebert abides

[–] mikeminetti 16 years ago

Prince of the City (1981) - Gritty NYC detective drama directed by Sidney Lumet

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pacificboy 15 years ago

Across 110th Street (1972)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
In America (2003)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)

"My brain rebelled, and insisted on applying logic where it was not welcome."

[–] asee 15 years ago

The Pawnbroker is incredible.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) is another underrated New York film.

[–] nhpbob 15 years ago

"Godspell" (1973) is one of the most underrated movies ENTIRELY shot on the streets of NYC. Even if one doesn't like hummable gospel-parable musicals, or musicals at all...this one uses NYC locations quite memorably, and mostly without people not counting the cast members.

You can even see them finishing one song on something that doesn't exist anymore: the World Trade Center, which in a helicopter pull-back shot is seen to be nearly complete in construction.

I also recall Bogdanovich's underrated farce "They All Laughed" from the early 80s. And "The World Of Henry Orient" (1964) with Peter Sellers in the supporting titular role.

[–] donrogers42 15 years ago

Hester Street (1975)

[–] bradford-1 15 years ago

THE CROWD (One of King Vidor's best, got lost in the rush toward talkies; many scenes filmed around NYC, often without peremission)
THE CAMERA MAN (One of Buster Keaton's last silent films; shot in Manhattan & Brooklyn; wonderful set pieces occur in a public bathhouse and on a real double-decker bus on Fifth Avenue)
DEAD END (shot on a stylized set where rich folks' penthouses sit across the street from grimy tenements; film debut of the Dead End Kids and one of Humphrey Bogart's first starring roles)

EDGE OF THE CITY (sort of a racially-tinged ON THE WATERFRONT, featuring Sidney Poitier, John Cassavetes and Ruby Dee, set on the old West Side docks in Manhattan.

[–] donrogers42 15 years ago

The Crowd and The Cameraman are both good choices from the 20s; Harold Lloyd's Speedy is another. I'll have to keep an eye out for Edge of the City; that's an excellent cast.

Dead End is an interesting pick -- a great set, though not an on-location shoot by any means. (Speaking of which, has anyone mentioned On the Town or Panic in the Streets?)

[–] calliope3 15 years ago

Shadows (1959): directed by John Cassavetes. Definitely worth your time.

[–] asee 14 years ago

After Hours and Nighthawks are two others.

[–] afsnowbird 14 years ago

"The Model and the Marriage Broker" (1951). It has beautiful New York city location photography, including the Flatiron Building and Grand Central Station.

[–] vpilutis 13 years ago

SSOS also had the Flatiron.

"The Anderson Tapes" for some reason when they talk about LUMET it never comes out.

It could be said The 1974 Taking of Pelham was the best NYC film Lumet never made

As a New Yorker this film has some memories for me of NYC in the late 1950s and the 1960s.
A few times one sees the TRANS LUX in the background, that house never had feature films only newsreels, crazy.

When I was very small our dad took my sister and I to see the Macy's parade.
First time we saw this giant poster for CAMEL cigarettes with real smoke coming out of the model's mouth that poster was there for many years until of course
it was removed when tobacco companies could no longer place such ads.
Howard Johnson's Restaurans which are long gone.

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/