Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 317: Sat Nov 15

Night of the Juggler (Butler, 1980): Nickel Cinema, 5.30pm

Nickel Cinema introduction:
A tough, New York City ex-cop relentlessly searches for his kidnapped teenage daughter, held by a deranged drifter who’s mistaken her for the child of a wealthy businessman. As the chase rages through the city’s derelict streets and subways, both men are pushed to the brink. Restored at long last, this notorious cult thriller has been nearly impossible to see on any format except VHS for over four decades—a furious, grimy portrait of Manhattan at its wildest.

When one thinks of the great New York City movies of the ’70s and ’80s, a handful of titles immediately come to mind: “Taxi Driver,” “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” “The Warriors” and “Death Wish” all captured, with sleazy authenticity and on-the-ground vérité, the grime and desperation of a city in a free-fall of financial ruin and moral rot. But there’s another film that deserves inclusion in that pantheon — one that, through no fault of your own, you probably haven’t seen. That film is the 1980 movie Night of the Juggler. Jason Bailey, New York Times

Here (and above) is the trailer.