The book's title comes from John Lindsay, the city's mayor from 1966, who was referring to New York as a fun city even though, at the time, the subway and bus workers were on strike. As mayor, he probably did more than anyone to make the city responsive to film maker's needs by organising the bureaucracy in the five boroughs to make it easier for film companies to shoot in the streets. The result was an increase of millions of dollars to the city.
Each chapter looks at a decade's of Big Apple filming with some standout titles which are covered in depth. The first decade is 1920 and the Jazz singer from 1927. The Thirties has King Kong (1933) and Naked City (1947) from the Forties. The Fifties with Burt Lancaster in the Sweet Smell of Success (1957). The Sixties with Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969). Gene Hackman in The French Connection (1971) and De Niro in the Taxi Driver (1976) for the Seventies. Wall Street (1987) directed by Oliver Stone for the Eighties. I thought the films for 1990, 2001 and 2011 are perhaps too recent to really have thrown up classic New York titles. Will the work of Spike Lee, Larry Clark, Abel Ferrara and Steve McQueen create some?
Each decade also reveals individual films which get a spread with some text and production stills on the left and the title's poster on the right-hand page. Throughout the book, there are dozens of other films mentioned that were all shot in the city and well illustrated. For some reason, the book doesn't have an index of all the titles, a serious omission in my view.
Overall, a fascinating survey of how the streets and locations in New York City contributed to some of the greatest American films.
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