Chase Scene Filmed While BART Was Under Construction

by Jackson West on March 18, 2009 · 6 comments

guest post by Jackson West

While checking for new movies added to Hulu, I stumbled across the 1971 film The Organization. It stars Sidney Poitier reprising his role as Lt. Virgil Tibbs from In the Heat of the Night.  Except this time he’s on the trail of a bunch of heroin smugglin’ honkies with the help of some concerned Teamsters in San Francisco (including a very young Raul Julia).  It’s standard seventies caper flick fare, though with a  multi-culti cast, funky electro-jazz soundtrack and of course great views of The City.  The highlight is the final chase scene, which takes place underneath Market Street while the Muni and BART tunnels were still under construction. It’s the equivalent of a full-nude peep show for public transportation fetishists.

See Previously:

- John Law on The History Channel’s Cities of the Underworld

- The Times of Harvey Milk Documentary Now on Hulu

- 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride by Improv Everywhere

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filed under Film, History, Retro, San Francisco, Transportation

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 William Zeuthen March 18, 2009 at 3:55 pm

I want to point out that Hulu is US only, which is annoying when you’re not in the US, because then you can’t watch the film.

Lets say I wanted to watch the film, now I can’t because I’m not the US.

I wouldn’t bother if it didn’t felt worth it. Thanks for the blog. Unthanks to Hulu.

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2 Scott Beale March 18, 2009 at 4:03 pm

Yes, it’s fairly well known at this point that Hulu is only available in the US and people dealing with this have discovered ways of accessing the video from other countries. We even have an entry in our FAQ entry related to this issue: http://laughingsquid.com/faq/#video-outside-us

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3 kevin evans March 18, 2009 at 3:55 pm

A bank robbery went down in 1999 right across the street…

(BofA)

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4 M2danger March 18, 2009 at 4:43 pm

The chase scene in ‘THX 1138′ was filmed in the Bart tunnel under the bay before the tracks were installed.

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5 Jackson West March 18, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Sorry about the US only restriction — though I imagine a copy of “The Organization” can be found in other, ahem, less official places online.

And didn’t know that about THX 1138. Does that mean, in the end, when he gets to the end of the tunnel and surfaces, Robert Duvall has escaped the clutches of tyranny only to find himself in… (duh-duh-dah) West Oakland?

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6 Marc March 18, 2009 at 9:35 pm

Episode 2, season 1 of “The Streets of San Francisco” (’The Thirty Year Pin’) has a chase scene that takes place in the still unfinished 24th Street and 16th Street BART stations. It’s an amazing scene.

I find “Streets” to be only so-so, but has a fantastic 70s-melange soundtrack and wonderful location shots –including lots of driving on and under the (thank-God-it’s-gone) Embarcadero Freeway.

Episode information at TV.com: http://www.tv.com/the-streets-of-san-francisco-1972/the-thirty-year-pin/episode/110952/summary.html?tag=ep_guide;ep_title;1

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