The early car conflict scene between two old guys (Lou Gilbert‘s “Rosenbaum” and Ben Dova‘s “Klaus Szell”) is one of the most gripping sequences in John Schlesinger‘s Marathon Man (10.8.76).
Set on a one-way street in the 70s or 80s in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, it must have been a bitch to shoot with all the traffic control issues and whatnot.
One problem: I’ve never believed that both men would recklessly and obliviously drive full-speed into a fuel truck. Perhaps one of them but not both. A potentially great scene ends on a note of disappointment.
Sidenote: 24 or 25 years before Marathon Man Gilbert played “Pablo,” a trusted friend and ally of Marlon Brando‘s Emiliano Zapata, in Elia Kazan‘s Viva Zapata (’52)
