3. River Diner
While After Hours is not talked about as much as the other Scorsese masterpieces like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, this is still a notable film in the director’s filmography. For it is After Hours that brings Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Micheal Ballhaus together for the first time. Ballhaus – famous for working with German New Wave director Rainer Fassbender – would go on to work alongside Scorsese five more times after collaborating on After Hours.
This shot is a prime example of the magic that he and Scorsese put together on screen. In this beautiful low angle shot, we follow Paul and Marcy into a diner. The River Diner was on the corner of 11th avenue and 37th Street. It opened in the 1930s and stayed in the exact same location until it closed down in March 2004.
4. Spring Street Subway Station
Things do not go so well with Marcy, so Paul exits her apartment and tried to get home on the train. His plans of getting home via subway are halted when the teller refuses to give him a token (those little copper coins with holes in the middle that were not pennies). According to the teller, the fare went up to $1.50 (incredible how cheap the subway use to be) at midnight. Paul only has 98 cents, which is not enough for the man in the booth to give him a break. When Paul tries to just hop the turnstile, a cop appears out of nowhere.
The whole exchange takes place at the Spring Street Subway Station, an entrance you can journey to at the intersection of Vandam Street and Avenue of The Americans.
5. Terminal Bar
Out in the rain, Paul takes shelter in a small bar on the corner of Spring and Renwick Street. There he runs into a bartender named Tom (who is connected to the story in more ways than one) and a waitress named Julie, whose hairstyle and overall personality, seems straight out of the 1960s.
The place is a real bar, but it is not called Terminal Bar. It’s actually The Emerald Pub, which has been on that corner since 1972. It was run by Paddy Reilly, now it is run by a native Irish man named Damian Dolan. The Pub keeps the bar filled with 30 different kinds of vodka and of course, beer.
6. Tom’s Apartment
It looks as if Paul has found himself a savior. Tom (the bartender) offers to loan Paul the money for the train, however he can not get his cash register to work (warning, cash registers do get abused in this movie). Tom has a key to get the register open, however, it’s in his apartment. Paul volunteers to go get the spare key, and leaves his own keys at the bar, so he can be trusted.
Tom tells Paul that his apartment in on the top floor of the 158 Spring Street. When Paul gets there, he washes off his face, wipes it with some tissues and proceeds to toss them in Tom’s toilet. When he flushes, the water starts overflowing; Paul trying desperately to stop the overflowing by just putting the seat down, just gives up and retreats back to Terminal, to get subway fare and his own keys.
7. Julie’s Apartment
After some chance encounters and major plot revelations, Paul gets to Terminal, only for it to be closed at the moment. The waitress from earlier, Julie, spots him and invites him into her home (was it that easy to get into women’s apartments in the 80s?). Julie’s apartments is stocked with hairspray, has rat traps surrounding her bed, and the color palette of a John Waters film. She lives on top of a Xerox shop, where she also works.
The apartment of the waitress who can not figure out 8% tax (neither can a lot of people) is across the street from the Terminal Bar: 307 between Spring and Renwick Street.
8. Berlin
Kiki and her boyfriend give an invitation for Paul to meet up with them at this punk bar on the corner of West Broadway and Grand named Berlin. Paul tries to get in, but it is “mohawk night” according to the bouncer who gives Paul a hard time. He drags Paul in eventually, and tries to get his head shaven in the process. Paul flees only to return to the bar, just to end up taken hostage (sort of) by a pair of burglars played by none other than Cheech & Chong. This place may have never existed, however the patterns of the building next to Berlin figures into the overall psychology of the movie.
Last week is the final week, as Untapped will tackle Scorsese’s mafia classic Goodfellas
If this is the first in the series you have gone through, check out the film locations for Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.
To find out what become of Paul’s twenty dollars, contact the author @TatteredFedora