Reservoir Dogs got it's criminals-identify-themselves-by-color idea from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a fairly awesome 70's crime thriller with one of the best closing shots I've ever seen. It's also got a great cast with Robert Shaw (the guy from Jaws whose name you don't know), Martin Balsam (the guy from Psycho who's not psycho), Hector Elizondo (the guy from "Chicago Hope"), Tony Roberts (the guy from all those Woody Allen movies), Jerry Stiller (George's dad), and Walter Matthau (seriously, if you don't know, I can't help you).
Shaw, Balsam, and Elizondo are the crooks who hijack a subway train, Matthau and Stiller are the transit authority cops trying to keep things under control and Roberts is the guy from the Mayor's office that's responsible for getting the ransom money. A lot of the tension and humor comes from Matthau, Stiller, and pretty much everyone else's confusion over why these guys decided to hijack a form of transportation that's confined to tracks and underground and how they think they can possible get away with the loot.
Pelham is the earliest movie that I've seen which focuses on a group of criminals who take a large group as hostages. It was released a year before 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, with which it shares many thematic elements. I think it's significant that both films reference Attica and I can't help but wonder if those prison riots awakened some fear in the American public that eventually lead to a mini-genre with blockbuster films like the Die Hard series (coming soon Die Hard 4: Die Die Hard Die). If I were a film student that would totally become the thesis for a paper.
FunFact: Mustaches were popular in 1974.
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