Change at 42nd

By J.C.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE Directed by JOSEPH SARGENT Screenplay by PETER STONE

The mayor of New York has a cold.

He also wishes everyone and everything would go away; he especially wants his chief aide to clam up. But the aide insists on telling his honor about the most absurd caper ever to hit Manhattan Island. Four men with automatic weapons have hijacked a subway car. They are holding it, 17 passengers and a conductor for $1 million ransom. The city has exactly one hour to get up the cash. For every minute past their deadline, the hijackers promise to shoot one of the hostages.

It is too much for the mayor, whose popularity is even lower than he feels. With grouchy reluctance he agrees with his aide that the ransom should be paid with money borrowed from the Federal Reserve Bank. With the city running painfully short of time, the aide adds that it is inopportune for the mayor "to spend an hour trying to knock down the interest rate." The mayor is also urged to go to the scene of the crime and appeal for the safety of the hostages. "Why?" asks the wincing mayor, who points out that the crowd will probably boo him and the hijackers may shoot him. "They have no reason to shoot at you," answers the exasperated aide.

"Why?" asks the mayor. "Are they from out of town?"

That brand of political repartee provides the breeziest moments in a featherweight thriller called The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, based on John Godey's best-selling novel, which was obviously written expressly as film fodder. Screenwriter Peter Stone (Charade) has grafted some reflexively cynical New York City comedy onto Godey's book. Most of the characters in the movie quite rightly have a hard time taking the hijacking seriously.

Robert Shaw and Martin Balsam play the leading hijackers; Walter Matthau is a lieutenant in the Transit Police who helps undo them. Each of these gentlemen -- indeed, the entire cast -- at tacks his role by affecting the slightly petulant boredom of a commuter with nothing to read. They seem to rouse themselves only for the wisecracks.

Some are welcome but, as they say in New York, that and 35 cents will get you a ride on the subway.

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