The Squeeze

Lee Van Cleef at his most facially challenged plays a retired safeman, who comes back from Mexico to New York to do one job for a friend's kid.

Includes most of the cliches one would expect from a "last gig"- film, but redeems itself with nice NY locations, comedy (some intentional) and Lee Van Cleef. Recommended as a time- passer.

Released on video in Finland in the eighties.

After the spaghetti western craze in Italy died out in the mid-1970s, Lee Van Cleef still found himself wanted by Italian filmmakers for several years afterwards, "The Squeeze" being one of his post-westerns. Although Van Cleef was in his 50s when this movie was made, he still had the stuff that made him a star, and he gives a solid performance here. Another good performance in the movie comes from Karen Black, who is pretty convincing as a kind of ditzy neighbor who enters the life of Van Cleef's character. The movie also has better than average production values for an Italian production for the time, with on-location filming in New York City that gives the movie an authentic feeling at times. However, despite all this good stuff, the movie is still somewhat of a struggle to watch. It's very talky, with long stretches with nothing happening. A few more action sequences would have helped considerably. There are a couple of twists in the final few minutes, but it's too little too late. In short, the movie is probably only for die hard fans of Lee Van Cleef during an unusually slow night.

For one last heist, grizzled safe-cracker Lee Van Cleef (as Chris) is lured out of retirement by cocky young Edward Albert (as Jeff). Later on, both men are acquainted with sexy Karen Black (as Clarisse). As events proceed, everyone's life is put in danger, and you can count on some deception among the ranks. With these three in the cast, you would expect a good run for the money, but the picture falls flat on its face. It starts off well, and gets bogged down by musical interludes, as the cameras wander around New York City looking for action. At one point, supporting cast member Lionel Stander (as Sam) says, "Shazam!" Alas, there is no magic.

*** The Squeeze (10/25/78) Antonio Margheriti ~ Lee Van Cleef, Edward Albert, Karen Black, Lionel Stander

...there's quite a bit to dislike in THE RIP-OFF (as the Goodtimes Home Video VHS release tagged this movie): Karen Black overacts hysterically (as do several of the dubbed German supporting players), Edward Albert looks like he was on a margarine diet during shooting, and whoever mixed the substandard musical score into the soundtrack should have been executed. But Lee Van Cleef, Lionel Stander and Robert Alda all perform well above the call of this duty; the dialogue is frequently witty, highlighting a generally intriguing premise (Van Cleef is lured back from pseudonymous exile as a Mexican rancher to perform one last safecracking job in order to keep New York gangsters from killing Albert); and the cheap 16mm location cinematography of New York in early January is oddly compelling. As things go for what's usually termed "European Trash Cinema," this is a nice little curd of cheese worthy of dropping five bucks on at better Wal-Marts everywhere...

A rare misfire from Italian director Antonio Margheriti, made during his difficult period in the 1970s. He wowed throughout the 1960s with his extremely good gothic horrors, and he came back roaring into life in the 1980s with his Vietnamese battle epics, but In between he made some quite meandering fare, of which this is a good example. The title seems to rip-off the earlier British thriller and they've even cast Stacy Keach-lookalike Edward Albert. Lee Van Cleef, with a twinkle in his eye, plays a safecracker hired for one more job, but double crossings are in store. The heist is dull, cast members like Karen Black and Lionel Stander can do very little, and the whole thing is extremely stodgy.