When Frank Pantageli is attacked in the bar the fight spills out into the street and I am sure that one of the parked cars is a Jaguar. Where Jaguars popular in the Brooklyn of that time or is it some other vehicle?

I don't recall seeing a Jaguar but I may be wrong. Our resident car experts, Turnbull and Johnny Ola, will be able to tell ya for sure when they check in.

Welcome to the boards!

Welcome, rbpoplar!
You're right: the car you saw was a Jaguar--a Mk I. The Mk I was introduced in 1955 to complement Jag's XK sportscars and big Mk VII luxo sedans. The MkI had a 2.4 liter engine in the UK, but a 3.4 liter engine when exported to the US.

I'm not sure that the scene was meant to depict Brooklyn. But Mk I's were not uncommon in New York City at that time (late 1958). Jaguar was one of the relatively few "foreign cars" sold in the US in the late '50's (no Japanese cars then). The VW Beetle, at $1600-$1700, was far and away the most popular. But for the well-heeled few, Jaguar (at $3400-$4200) had tremendous cachet--more so than Mercedes. We saw far more XK sports cars on the road than 190 and 300SL Mercedes, and far more Mk I and Mk VII "saloons" (as Jaguar called them) than the 190, 220 and 300-series Mercedes sedans. British sports cars were quite popular at that time. Most of those sold in the US were MG, Triumph and Austin Healy, but Jag was the top of the line. But the UK sold relatively few sedans in the US in the late '50's--Morris Minors, Rileys, Rovers, etc., were rarer than Jag sedans.

FFC is a fanatic about authentic detail, and the cars he shows in the GF Trilogy are prime examples of his fanaticism. In that shooting scene with Pentangeli, you see, in addition to the Mk I, Frankie's superb '57 Cadillac Eldorado at the curb. Willie Cicci is struck by a '57 Lincoln Capri and is narrowly missed by a '55 Buick and a '57 Oldsmobile. You also see a '58 Ford Custom 300 police car--exactly what the NYPD used in '58, in exactly the colors used by NYPD.

If you fast-forward to Michael's entry into Cuba, you will see a parade of authentic cars, starting with the '57 Mercury Montclair that takes him around. If you look closely at the part where his bodyguard rolls up the window of the car to keep out the kids selling newspapers, you'll see a '55 Jaguar Mk VII saloon passing in the opposite direction.

just not that attentive to baseball games and when they were played.

TB...you truly amaze. Did you see the kid in the background riding a 1954 Schwinn Phantom IV with the chrome hi-rise handle bars and the Phil Rizzuto baseball cards cloths-pinned to the fender struts? Don't worry, I didn't either.