Director William Friedkin used 65 different locations overall but spent a goodly amount of time rebuilding the old Scollay Square - torn down in 1962 to make way for Government Center - in McKinley Square and mocking up a re-creation of the Dudley Street el stop. He also shot extensively in the North End on Prince Street, using the original site of the robbery (by 1978, the garage of Polcari's restaurant) and paying locals to remove storm windows, air conditioners, and TV antennas (the story goes that Friedkin's crew paid $200 to get rid of one AC unit -- and the next morning every window had one). ... Globe reviewer Bruce McCabe wrote that Friedkin captured "a big small town where the Irish-Americans and the Italian-Americans coexist with varying degrees of ease and where the neighborhood is the setting for life."

Pictured, a scene from the film.