Pick The Next NYC Movie For A Then & Now Comparison!
To date, Scouting NY has done full then-and-now movie comparisons of Ghostbusters, Taxi Driver, Rosemary’s Baby, Annie Hall, The Godfather, North by Northwest, The Apartment, The Warriors, Pickup on South Street and Eyes Wide Shut (sort of!).
I open it up to the floor: what movie would you like to see covered next?
Leave your vote in the comments, and don’t be afraid to say why you think it’s a good choice. Most compelling suggestion wins!*
-SCOUT
*Unless you donate $500 to my film fund, in which case you can just pick the next movie 🙂
Three Days of the Condor – Upper West Side, Randall’s Island, etc
Vigilante – The McCarren Park pool
I would love to see Goodfellas comparisons. Seems a lot of conflicting info is on the inter webs about the locations. Would be great to have your eyes and research get to the bottom of it.
Desperately Seeking Susan, After Hours.
Two great movies which portray the trendy nightlife of their age. The 80’s are still in our memories but the city has changed.
How about The French Connection or Midnight Cowboy to show how the city has changed since the lean mean 1970’s?
On a softer note the movie Metropolitan by Whit Stillman is it still as timeless as it seemed?
The Naked City (1948)
And I donated a couple of times a couple of years ago…
Hal Ashby’s directorial debut, The Landlord (1970), for its views of Prospect Park and pre-gentrified Park Slope.
The version of Hamlet set in NYC with Ethan Hawke.
I’d love to see you do the original The Taking of Pelham 123, but so much of it is underground…
Also, Cry Terror from 1957, starring James Mason.
oir The Naked City, 1950.
Godspell, if you please. Tons of interesting locations there, and I’d love to see how much of it is identifiable.
Gangs of New York!
Comparing the places in the 1800’s to now would be awesome
Midnight Cowboy sounds interesting.
Hair. NYC at its 70s grungiest, on the cusp of renewal, particularly the shots in Central Park.
The Pope of Greenwich Village might be a worthwhile endeavor.
I’ll second The Warriors, outside of that, Lost Weekend or The Out of Towners (the original).
Big. When Harry Met Sally. Moonstruck. Saturday Night Fever.
I’ll second Moonstruck and Saturday Night Fever, and add My Favorite Year and Crossing Delancey to the list
Another one: Madigan – great mid-century cop movie, starring Henry Fonda as the NY Police Commissioner.
Plus, from a couple years later, No Way to Treat a Lady.
“Little Fugitive”
“The Hot Rock”
“On the Bowery”
Coogan’s Bluff (1968) with Clint Eastwood. Lots of great NYC filming locations.
Bye-Bye Braverman
Wait Until Dark
Yes, Midnight Cowboy – Definitely!
The Odd Couple if you haven’t already.
Where’ Poppa?
Marathon Man.
OK, I’ll stop now…
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I’d love to see either The Seven-Ups (1973). The film exemplifies how gritty and dirty the city was in the 1970s and has hundreds of interesting locales that are ripe for the examining. There’s everything from a single-unit diner all the way to a ridiculously distinctive car wash that plays a starring part in the film. Not to mention that it has one of the greatest movie car chases of all time in it. Toward the ending there is what seems to be a gigantic garbage dumping/scrapyard that I’ve always been curious about. The film genuinely feels authentic thanks to the amazing scenery and locations featured throughout. It would be fantastic to see it in a then/now comparison.
[Please note that in my above post, the word *either* is a typo.]
Annie Hall is my favorite of the ones you listed, so I’m voting for it 🙂
(But hey, A Godfather or Taxi Driver then and now would also be cool)
Scout has already done awesome jobs on both Taxi Driver and The Godfather.
And Annie Hall.
Panic in Needle Park
After Hours
Taxi Driver
Mean Streets
Chud
Having just watched the Peter Bogdanovich romp ‘The All Laughed’ from 1981, and immediately thought that it would make for a fantastic entry to this series.
Mediocre movie, great authentic locations.
Someone’s already mentioned my two favorites- After Hours and Desperately Seeking Susan. Also either of Whit Stillman’s two New York films- Metropolitan and Last Days of Disco.
I’d also like to see a T&N for Three Days of the Condor, because it made the city look so charming and creepy and threatening, all at the same time. And because (according to the introduction to the book–actually titled *Six* Days of the Condor) it was originally supposed to be set in Washington, DC, but Robert Redford was scheduled to film All the President’s Men in DC and didn’t want to be away from his family for most of a year, so he said he’d only be in it if it was set in NY. That obviously necessitated some differences from the book. I love stuff like that. 🙂
Sunday in NY 1963 comedy. location scenes shot in NY.
Working girl!
Annie Hall
Serpico
“The Little Fugitive” 1953!!
Please consider YOU’VE GOT MAIL, for your next shot-in-NY project
I second the previous nomination of The Seven Ups. Great cop film and great 70’s NY vibe (although I’ve always suspected much was shot in various northern NJ locations).
Also, I’ve long wanted a list of *exactly* where all the shots in the opening montage of The Boys in the Band were. Holland Tunnel was easy…but, the rest?
Sweet Smell of Success has classic 1950’s Manhattan locations, mainly at night.
Mean Streets for a completely different milieu.
Desperately Seeking Susan
After Hours
Midnight Cowboy
Harold Lloyd’s “Speedy”!
“Eyes of Laura Mars”…edgy 70’s SoHo before it became a mall
I LOVE then and now.
My pick is the 1971 “They Might Be Giants” with George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. Scott’s character has delusions that he is master detective Sherlock Holmes, and Woodward plays the doctor — Dr Watson! — who is supposed to rubber-stamp his commitment to an asylum. But instead she is drawn into his fantasy and they search all kinds of nooks and crannies of the city for clues — leading of course to the arch nemesis Moriarty, in Central Park.
It’s purely a selfish choice, as almost nobody I know has ever heard of it, and certainly lacks the mass appeal of, say “Working Girl” (which I’d also love to see!) But this movie more than any other has shaped the idea of what New York City is, to me — geographically (I saw it far before I moved here) and conceptually. Their persistent search to solve the “mystery” is so poetic. There isn’t really a mystery, but they find clues all the same. Anything you look for here, you can find. You just have to be willing to go scouting for it.
How about the original “The In-Laws”? Might not be enough for a full article, but there are some nice shots around late 70’s Herald Square/Midtown. The spot where the cab stops short (“The Eagle has landed”) is the corner of 31st and 6th. The great old bar is now a Gregory’s coffee. Not sure where the Wilson Building is, where Sheldon had to go up to Vince’s office.
The opening/closing montages of the Odd Couple tv show (the best Odd Couple, by the way).
The old opening montage of Late Night with David Letterman (the NBC show) with the old Times Square theaters tuening their lights out for the night.