When you first see Lula walking between cars into the 6 train at Astor Place, it's obvious that she is either mentally ill or drugged out of her mind. There's only one other person on that train, Al Freeman Jr, a handsome black man who is aroused by her in spite of the fact that she is one macadamia short of a nut house. She's the type of person that should have made him get off at Union Square (if it was going uptown) simply by her erratic behavior, and it ends up being a very disturbing 50 minutes about the very problematic 60's. Perhaps it is too real in telling its story of two strangers encountering each other, flirting harmlessly at first, but eventually getting into conversations and arguments and situations that are far too personal to be witnessing. If I was on a subway car with these two people, I definitely would be getting out at the next stop. For some reason, the Astor Place set is shown every time the camera pans to a subway stop. There's no way in a short period of time that they could go all the way uptown into the Bronx and then get back down again.
This story basically focuses on these two people, and it isn't until later in the film when other people get on the train, something rather bizarre on the very busy eastside subway. Even in the middle of the night, it's rare to be on an almost empty car. Since the film itself is very depressing, the only thing that I can say worth recommending watching this for are the performances by two award winning actors. Freeman was the first successful black actor on a daytime soap, always winning acclaim for his superb performance as police officer Ed Hall, his teaming with attorney Carla Gray creating the first black supercouple on a soap. Knight, who seem to prefer the stage over film yet had two Oscar nominations by this time, and she is obviously relishing this wacked out character, a great acting exercise, but not much fun for the viewer. Her character is definitely dangerouslt unhinged, and his character is obviously not drunk or high to be fooled by her, and it takes a while for his character to realize what kind of a female he's allowed himself to be taken in by. When he finally does, it's too late, and her explosion into absolute madness is not fun to watch.
This story basically focuses on these two people, and it isn't until later in the film when other people get on the train, something rather bizarre on the very busy eastside subway. Even in the middle of the night, it's rare to be on an almost empty car. Since the film itself is very depressing, the only thing that I can say worth recommending watching this for are the performances by two award winning actors. Freeman was the first successful black actor on a daytime soap, always winning acclaim for his superb performance as police officer Ed Hall, his teaming with attorney Carla Gray creating the first black supercouple on a soap. Knight, who seem to prefer the stage over film yet had two Oscar nominations by this time, and she is obviously relishing this wacked out character, a great acting exercise, but not much fun for the viewer. Her character is definitely dangerouslt unhinged, and his character is obviously not drunk or high to be fooled by her, and it takes a while for his character to realize what kind of a female he's allowed himself to be taken in by. When he finally does, it's too late, and her explosion into absolute madness is not fun to watch.