As gritty British thrillers go, Get Carter will probably be remembered as the benchmark. The Squeeze is a 1977 entry into the genre, directed by Michael Apted and populated by a cast of strong actors. While it isn't really in the same class as Get Carter, this film still has its moments, many of them provided by Stacy Keach as the alcoholic hero (a role originally offered to Richard Harris). The emphasis is very much on sleaze, violence and foul language, and it all becomes a bit wearing by the end. But the film is put together with enough skill and handled at an engaging enough pace for it to keep the audience's attention.
Ex-cop Jim Naboth (Stacy Keach) is at a real low ebb in his life. His wife has left him, he has difficulty organising himself as a single parent, and his only true passion seems to be for the booze. His ex-wife Jill (Carol White) has remarried and now lives with a successful banker called Foreman (Edward Fox). Alas, Foreman's position makes him an attractive target for potential bank robbers and his greatest fears become a reality when a gang of vicious thugs kidnap Jill and threaten to kill her unless Foreman assists them in pulling off a bank heist. The robbery is masterminded by Vic Smith (Stephen Boyd), while the kidnapping aspect of their plan is overseen by the sadistic Keith (David Hemmings). Since he knows that contacting the police would spell disaster, Foreman decides his only option is to appeal to Naboth to save Jill. Somehow Naboth must beat his addiction to the bottle, and put aside any differences he has with his ex-wife, in order to complete the job.
The Squeeze creates a fairly convincing atmosphere of squalor and ugliness. These are ugly characters, existing in an ugly walk of life, and the film effectively gets across such unpleasant realities. Coming away from the film, I felt physically relieved that I don't mix in the kind of circles pictured in this movie! Keach gives yet another under-rated performance as the troubled hero while Hemmings is excellent as one of the principal villains, and stage comic Freddie Starr does a surprisingly good job as Naboth's friend Teddy, a likable low-life who tries to keep our hero on the straight and narrow. There are aspects of the film that don't work quite so well. There's an almost intentional relentlessness with which the film seeks to dwell upon sleaze that makes the movie rather unattractive. In one especially sordid sequence, the kidnappers force Jill to perform a strip for their entertainment. It's an uncomfortable scene, and while some might argue it adds to our overall antipathy towards the kidnappers, it also has a voyeuristic and perverted edge to it. Another weakness with the film is that occasional plot points don't hang together believably the way the villains underestimate Naboth, the way Jill gets sexually involved with her captors, the abrupt and unsatisfying way the film ends. Some of these moments just don't quite ring true, and it's more noticeable than ever in a film like this, which seeks to generate an air of gritty realism. The Squeeze will be best enjoyed by fans of hard-boiled British crime thrillers others might find the seediness, ugliness, unpleasantness and sleaziness a bit of a turn-off.
Ex-cop Jim Naboth (Stacy Keach) is at a real low ebb in his life. His wife has left him, he has difficulty organising himself as a single parent, and his only true passion seems to be for the booze. His ex-wife Jill (Carol White) has remarried and now lives with a successful banker called Foreman (Edward Fox). Alas, Foreman's position makes him an attractive target for potential bank robbers and his greatest fears become a reality when a gang of vicious thugs kidnap Jill and threaten to kill her unless Foreman assists them in pulling off a bank heist. The robbery is masterminded by Vic Smith (Stephen Boyd), while the kidnapping aspect of their plan is overseen by the sadistic Keith (David Hemmings). Since he knows that contacting the police would spell disaster, Foreman decides his only option is to appeal to Naboth to save Jill. Somehow Naboth must beat his addiction to the bottle, and put aside any differences he has with his ex-wife, in order to complete the job.
The Squeeze creates a fairly convincing atmosphere of squalor and ugliness. These are ugly characters, existing in an ugly walk of life, and the film effectively gets across such unpleasant realities. Coming away from the film, I felt physically relieved that I don't mix in the kind of circles pictured in this movie! Keach gives yet another under-rated performance as the troubled hero while Hemmings is excellent as one of the principal villains, and stage comic Freddie Starr does a surprisingly good job as Naboth's friend Teddy, a likable low-life who tries to keep our hero on the straight and narrow. There are aspects of the film that don't work quite so well. There's an almost intentional relentlessness with which the film seeks to dwell upon sleaze that makes the movie rather unattractive. In one especially sordid sequence, the kidnappers force Jill to perform a strip for their entertainment. It's an uncomfortable scene, and while some might argue it adds to our overall antipathy towards the kidnappers, it also has a voyeuristic and perverted edge to it. Another weakness with the film is that occasional plot points don't hang together believably the way the villains underestimate Naboth, the way Jill gets sexually involved with her captors, the abrupt and unsatisfying way the film ends. Some of these moments just don't quite ring true, and it's more noticeable than ever in a film like this, which seeks to generate an air of gritty realism. The Squeeze will be best enjoyed by fans of hard-boiled British crime thrillers others might find the seediness, ugliness, unpleasantness and sleaziness a bit of a turn-off.