New York: Films: NEW YORK

NEW YORK

Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954 — Chaired with a broken leg, cranky Gotham photographer Jimmy Stewart peers out his back window, spying on his neighbors and realizing a husband has murdered his wife! Grace Kelly is glorious as his girlfriend, and extra pair of legs.

On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan, 1954 — Failed boxer Marlon Brando could have been a contender in the masterful black-and-white drama about union strife on the New York docks.

Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese, 1990 — Mid-level NYC mobster Ray Liotta tries to keep his head (and his marriage to Lorraine Bracco) together, between murders, cocaine highs, jail sentences and the kind of office politics where whacking replaces firing.

Manhattan, Woody Allen, 1979 — Disenchanted urbanites grapple with love and relationships in 1970s New York. Cast includes Meryl Streep, the director’s longtime muse, Diane Keaton and a young Mariel Hemingway, who plays Allen’s character’s 17-year-old lover.

Arthur, Steve Gordon, 1981 — Dudley Moore as a millionaire playboy forced to choose between his inheritance and the love of his live—a Queens waitress played by Liza Minnelli.

Barefoot in the Park, Gene Saks, 1967— In Saks’ film adaptation of Neil Simon’s 1963 play, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford play newlyweds moving into the typical first-year Manhattan apartment: the fifth-floor walkup.

The Way We Were, Sydney Pollack, 1973 — The relationship between an idealistic Jewish woman (Barbara Streisand) and a laid-back WASP (Robert Redford) falls apart in the Age of McCarthyism. College scenes were shot at Union College in Schenectady, New York while the ending, immortalized by Sex and the City, takes place before the Plaza.

Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976 — In a role that largely shot him to stardom (and cemented his penchant for sociopathic characters), DeNiro plays Travis Bickle, a mentally unstable Vietnam veteran who, when suffering from insomnia, takes on a nighttime cab-driving gig.