After watching a car careening around Paris, I thought of another unauthorized car ride around a metropolis: the famous car chase from “The French Connection” which is considered the best movie car chase of all time.
The scene was filmed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn roughly running down the B (now the D) subway line which runs on an L above 86th Street in Brooklyn. Many of the shots in the scene were “real”, in that Hackman actually drove the car at high speeds through uncontrolled traffic and red lights with Friedkin running a camera from the backseat while wrapped in a carpet for protection. The production team received no prior permission from the city for such a dangerous stunt and the only precaution taken was to place a “gumdrop” police siren on the car’s roof and blare the horn which has only added to this scene’s mystique. Enjoy the ride!