Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Wednesday, July 20, 7:00, and Sunday, July 24, 9:00
Series continues through July 25
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
One of the ultimate nightmare scenarios of 1960s New York City, Larry Peerce’s gritty black-and-white The Incident takes viewers deep down into the subway as two thugs terrorize a group of helpless passengers. Joe Ferrante (Tony Musante) and Artie Connors (Martin Sheen, in his first movie role) are out for kicks, so after getting some out on the streets, they head underground, where they find a wide-ranging collection of twentieth-century Americans to torture, including Arnold and Joan Robinson (Brock Peters and Ruby Dee), Bill and Helen Wilks (Ed McMahon and Diana Van der Vlis), Sam and Bertha Beckerman (Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter, in her last role), Douglas McCann (Gary Merrill), Muriel and Harry Purvis (Jan Sterling and Mike Kellin), Alice Keenan (Donna Mills), soldiers Felix Teflinger and Phillip Carmatti (Beau Bridges and Robert Bannard), and others, each representing various aspects of contemporary culture and society, all with their own personal problems that come to the surface as the harrowing ride continues. It’s a brutal, claustrophobic, highly theatrical film that captures the fear that haunted the city in the 1960s and well into the ’70s, with an all-star cast tackling such subjects as racism, teen sex, alcoholism, homosexuality, war, and the state of the American family. The rarely shown drama, some of which was filmed in the actual subway system against the MTA’s warnings, is screening July 20 & 24 as part of Anthology Film Archives’ annual summer series “William Lustig Presents,” consisting of lesser-known selections from director, actor, producer, and 2009 New York City Horror Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award winner Bill Lustig. The Bronx-born creator of Maniac, Maniac Cop, and Vigilante and CEO of Blue Underground, which distributes exploitation and grindhouse flicks on DVD, has also chosen such films as Richard Fleischer’s The Last Run, Michael Tuchner’s Villain and Fear Is the Key, James Frawley’s Kid Blue, and William Friedkin’s The Brink’s Job, starring the late Peter Falk; the series continues through July 25.