Subway Riders


Subway Riders is a 1981 American No Wave mock-thriller film directed by Amos Poe.
It stars Robbie Coltrane, Susan Tyrrell, Charlene Kaleina, Cookie Mueller, and John Lurie. Screen appearances are also made by Lydia Lunch, Glenn O'Brien, Tony Shafrazi, Tom Wright and Lance Loud. 16mm color cinematography shot by Johanna Heer. The musical soundtrack includes Robert Fripp, Ivan Kral and The Lounge Lizards. The dark jagged mood of this semi-abstract film is heightened by a no wave sax-heavy soundtrack.

Plot

Shot on location in hauntingly grimy New York City, Subway Riders is a faux detective drama that chronicles a string of murders committed by a screen writer/saxophone player named Anthony as he moved through the city meeting a variety of odd underworld characters, seducing them with his sax music, shooting them dead, and hiding out in the all night New York City Subway. What ensues is an investigation of the murders by a hard-boiled detective named Fritz Langley played by Robbie Coltrane. Along the way Anthony meets an assortment of no wave personalities, including Cookie Mueller as the upstairs sax-hating prostitute Penelope Trasher.

Cast