Short Walk to Daylight

I recently got a copy of this movie through e-bay as these '70's TV movies are almost all forgotten and rarely run on late night TV anymore. I'm hoping somebody has a Nostaglic '70/'80's movie station coming soon because "Short Walk to Daylight" should be at the top of the list. The movie, given the time era it was made (1972) is actually very good and I felt the actors gave a good performance. Brooke Bundy may have gone a little over the top with her crying but she wasn't bad. The characters are all strangers waiting for a subway on an early Sunday morning and by the end of the movie have bonded together in a time of crisis.An earthquake strikes New York City leading to the disaster of the subway crashing and coming off the tracks. It seems realistic as this movie was made at a time when we didn't have computers to enhance the disaster. The walls come crumbling down, the earthquake has after-shocks and it makes for all the suspense these TV movies tried to generate. Some survive, some don't, typical of a disaster movie.There's some good elements of suspense along the way. Just when you think they're going to get out of the tunnel, they run into another obstacle. James Brolin was pretty popular at the time doing "Marcus Welby" and plays a hard-edged, NYC cop. I wouldn't want to spoil the ending but this movie is worth a look and given the length (90 minutes)it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I remember when this movie was first broadcast on the ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week - a 90 minute slot, so you basically had to produce a 75 minute or so movie. It was also out at a time when disaster movies were gearing up. Except for the junkie committing suicide, it worked well.

A lot of good movies were produced for that slot. Most notable: Steven Spielberg's "debut", "Duel". Also notable: "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler", featuring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak. The character was subsequently given a weekly series.

One other note: I believe there was an alternate version I saw on cable, where the disaster is given an explanation: A radical group planted a series of bombs at locations that caused the survivors to keep hitting dead ends. It detracted by adding unnecessary padding, and taking us from the survivor's point of view.

I saw this movie on TV when it first came out. I was 7 years old. I saw it again in 1974. Since then, I have not seen it. Now the review... This was such an excellent film, that I can still vividly remember it. Why? The New York City Subway System in the 1970's. You could not ask for a better piece of footage, if the former New York City Mayor John Lindsay were alive to have filmed it himself!! James Brolin was marginal in his acting, but the storyline was excellent. In fact, it was much better than DAYLIGHT, which just came out recently with Sylvester Stallone. If anyone can help me in getting a copy of this movie I would appreciate it tremendously!!!!

I read one of the comments submitted and wanted to say I also saw this movie when I was about 10 years old. I only saw it once on TV but vividly remember the people trapped in the subway tunnel. I would love to watch this one again! I cannot believe that others remember and share the same memories. I have been on the NYC subways all of my life and this movie, I remember was very true in terms of reality. If anyone sees this upcomming in a TV listing please pass it along. I only wonder if it will ever get released on VHS or DVD. This is a cult classic. I simply refuse to spend money on the garbage movies being released on an assembly line today. Not to mention the pool of lousy actors that are practically trillionaires! Lets all keep our eyes open and hope this one gets released sometime soon. kj944

I remember the first time I saw this film on the Movie of the Week...it was a very well-done movie IIRC. The idea of an earthquake hitting New York seemed kinda far-fetched, but you overlooked that due to the cast and the great direction.

Something odd happened to 'Short Walk to Daylight' when it went into syndication and was playing on the 'late night' slots: I seemed to remember that new footage was added creating a sub-plot of young radicals that had planted a bomb in NYC that caused the devastation to the subway system. Does anyone remember this version? I believe Univseral Studios was BIG on doing this to other movies of theirs, like 'Airport '75' when it came to TV. Their modus Operandi was to add deleted or film new scenes to movies to make them more 'sellable' to TV audiences. In the case of 'Short Walk to Daylight' the subplot of terrorists might have been a way to make the disaster more plausible since an earthquake of the magnitude indicated in the movie hitting New York is rather slim to none.