Dino DeLaurentis' "The Brinks Job" actually holds an infamous place in Boston's cinematic history. In an attempt to distance itself from a cheap TV movie quickie (made to capitalize on the announcement of the big-budget film) director William Friedkin decided to shoot his version in Boston at the actual site of the crime -- the Brink's building -- long since converted into a neighborhood parking garage and available to rent out.
There had been a few movies shooting mostly exteriors in Boston in the 70s including the still locally remembered "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" in 1973. But "Brinks" was the largest production ever mounted with Friedkin completely shooting it in the Boston area. And because of what happened during the production, Hollywood avoided shooting anything of this size in Boston for 20 years!
When the movie trucks rolled in, the privateers descended. Suddenly, anything the movie company needed to buy was more expensive and the crew had to conceal who they were when purchasing goods and services. But the worst was what the Teamsters did.
The production wanted the key people of the film to be picked up by limos in the morning and brought back to their hotels in the evening. But the local Teamsters insisted that their drivers be paid to be standing by 24-hours a day, seven days a week which added $1 million to the film's budget. Two Teamster leaders were found guilty of racketeering and mail fraud and sentenced to jail time because of this shake-down. It was learned the Teamsters had been doing this to films shot in Boston for the previous 10 years.
Additionally, the film's Boston production office was held up by armed gunmen who made off with 15 reels of film which were held for $600,000 in ransom. The thieves later lowered their demand to $500,000, but were told over the phone by Friedkin that the footage was duplicates and they could keep them.
Word filtered back to Hollywood to avoid Boston and for nearly 20 years major productions skipped the city and used other places like Philadelphia to stand in for Boston. "A Civil Action" in 1997 represented a turning point and since then the city and the state of Massachusetts cleaned up their act and even sought out film productions by offering an unlimited 25% tax incentive.
Today, Boston and Massachusetts are bustling with more than 30 productions a year with three sound stage facilities and more planned for the area. But in the '80s and most of the '90s, the city was a no-man's land for movies as it paid the price for profiteering off "The Brinks Job."
