purchased by Filmways in 1959. Among later films shot there were Butterfield 8 (1960), The Godfather (1972), The Wiz (1978), and Manhattan (1979). The building was demolished in the 1980s. The exterior street scenes above the hijacked subway train were filmed at the subway entrance at 28th and Park Avenue South in Manhattan. The mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion, was used for exteriors. Wave Hill, a nineteenth-century mansion overlooking the Hudson in Riverdale, Bronx, was used for the interior scenes set in Gracie Mansion. Music The Jerry Fielding and Don Ellis sounding score, composed and conducted by David Shire, "layers explosive horn arrangements and serpentine keyboard riffs over a rhythm section that pits hard-grooving basslines against constantly shifting but always insistent layers of percussion". Shire used the 12-tone composition method to create unusual, somewhat dissonant melodic elements. The soundtrack album was the first CD release by Film Score Monthly and was later released by Retrograde Records. The end titles contain a more expansive arrangement of the theme, courtesy of Shire's wife at the time, Talia Shire, who suggested that he end the score with a more traditional ode to New York. Release The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was released on October 2, 1974. Critical reception The film was well received by critics. Variety called it "a good action caper" but "the major liability is Peter Stone's screenplay, which develops little interest in either Matthau or Shaw's gang, nor the innocent hostages" which are "simply stereotyped baggage". While the trade paper complained that the Mayor was "played for silly laughs", it called Shaw "superb in another versatile characterization". BoxOffice thought that "some of the excitement has been lost" translating the novel to the screen, but "there is entertainment value in Peter Stone's screenplay". Nora Sayre of The New York Times thought it captured the mood of New York and New Yorkers. "Throughout there's a skillful balance between the vulnerability of New Yorkers and the drastic, provocative sense of comedy that thrives all over our sidewalks. And the hijacking seems like a perfectly probable event for this town. (Perhaps the only element of fantasy is the implication that the city's departments could function so smoothly together). Meanwhile, the movie adds up to a fine piece of reporting—and it's the only action picture I've seen this year that has a rousing plot." The film was one of several released that year that