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Unlikely duo (British comedian and actor) Freddie Starr, and (American Actor) Stacy Keach; team up in this eccentric 1970's Brit Gangster-Kidnap-Heist. In combination with Edward Fox, David Hemmings, and Stephen Boyd; this ensemble deliver a movie that successfully encapsulates both the time and the place (Central London UK). Leon Griffith's intelligent Screenplay, and David Hentschel's driving musical score, create a 'perfect-storm' of a movie-drama that it's mega-budget movie peers, could only dream of. Punching way above it's weight, this overlooked Gem comes with the Highest Recommendation.

English Director Michael Apted has received a good bit of attention for a few films over the years, most notably Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorky Park and Gorilla's In The Mist. He's also directed a number of TV episodes of many well known shows. Of all of the films I've seen of his, two of them stand out to me as quite underrated or underappreciated generally. This one which is actually so underseen it seems, and 1992's Thunderheart with Sam Shepard, Graham Greene and Val Kilmer. I definitely recommend checking them both out if you like crime drama.

7.5/10.

Diminutive funnyman Freddie Starr will no doubt always be associated with slapstick antics and pratfalls but his career also contains a few unexpected bursts of genius. In the sixties he bothered the beat clubs of Britain as the lead singer of the rockin' combo, and Joe Meek protoges, Freddie Starr & the Midnighters. Then in the seventies, at the peak of his comedy career, he gave a powerful performance in one of British cinema's most cruelly neglected crime flicks.

Any film brave enough to feature Yank actor Stacy Keach as a Londoner with Starr as his sidekick, has got to be worthy of praise. The Squeeze (1977) is a hard-boiled cockney crime caper directed by Michael Apted, reknowned documentary maker and helmer of the latest Bond movie. The film, described by the Daily Mail as 'a package tour of thuggery', stars Keach as Jim Naboth a drunken ex-cop who can not keep his 'private dick' business together and regularly wakes in the gutter after endless binges. Starr is Teddy, Naboth's shoplifting mate who attempts to keep him on the wagon.

Just released from a drying-out clinic, Naboth is no sooner back on the bottle than he discovers his ex-wife Jill (Carol White) and daughter have been kidnapped. The abduction has been master-minded by Irish villain Vic Smith in an attempt to force Jill's new lover (Edward Fox) into revealing route plans for his compny's fleet of security vans. Carrying out the dirty deed is Smith's right-hand man Keith (David Hemmings), a leering thug who enjoys tormenting and humiliating his prisoners.

Naboth stumbles in a drunken haze through the London underworld and endless seedy nightspots, shadowed protectively by Teddy. Despite a succession of beatings and batterings Naboth finally rescues his ex but not before the capital is littered with blood-slattered blaggers, disgarded 'shootahs' and trashed transit vans. All this from the pen of writer Leon Griffiths the creator of knockabout 'mockney' masterpiece Minder, a show which rarely portrayed east-end crims in such a brutal fashion.

Despite matching other UK crime classics, such as Get Carter, Villain and The Long Good Friday, for sheer quality The Squeeze remains (generally) unknown, unavailable on video and destined to lurk between tatty TV movies and cheap titillation on Channel Five's late-night slots.

Keach is fantastic throughout and Starr plays an oddly maternal character, constantly protecting Naboth, feeding him and even cleaning him up when he finds him surrounded by winos and knocked out on cheap booze. Despite this challenging role, Starr never attempts to wring some comedy from the part and it is surprising his later acting career led to no more than a disappointing BBC drama.

Add to these performances an authentic selection of bleak London locations and you have a gritty, urban drama that is rougher than a pair of sandpaper underpants. >

I'm a big Stephen Boyd fan and had to catch this film as it was his second to last film before his untimely death. I rate this film above average. The story moves at a decent pace, and the acting is fairly good, but truthfully, it's nothing to write home about. A really great cast is wasted here as far as I'm concerned. Guess I can't blame any of the actors involved, as the script is lacking in true greatness. However, it is an entertaining enough film. Regarding Stephen Boyd. He looked lean and fit, but he looked ill. It just wasn't the Stephen Boyd of old. Was he ill here? Who knows. I know he died a short time later. For my money, I'd rather remember the handsome, talented, and likable Boyd in his prime. So, instead of sitting through the squeeze, I'd rather see Stephen Boyd in The Best of Everything, Ben Hur, Island in the Sun, and the Oscar.

While it's no "Get Carter" or "Mona Lisa" this late seventies British gangster drama does have some sleazy charm of its own, mostly centered around the actors who play the two chief villains, Stephen Boyd and David Hemmings, as well as an engaging performance by an actor with whom I was not familiar, Freddie Starr, as a taxi cab driving sidekick to the main character's alkie ex cop. Also worthy of mention, to this Yank at least, is cinematographer Dennis Lewiston's eye for various London neighborhoods, from the posh to the working class and points in between. And director Michael Apted, of "Coal Miner's Daughter" fame, shows once again that he can tell a cinematic story without an undue slackening of action or flow.

The main problem with this film is that the story given Apted to tell by scenarist Leon Griffiths makes little or no sense. Maybe my American ears missed something but there seemed to be no earthly reason why Edward Fox's smarmy millionaire would involve his wife's drunken cop ex husband in his elaborate plot to kidnap her and his daughter. And it makes even less sense why the cop would want to help his ex wife who he describes as "mean and nasty" and who abandoned and neglects her kids.

However, this is not the first gangster film I've enjoyed that features a dumb story. So, if you can suspend the ol disbelief and forgive Stacey Keach the worst attempt by a North American actor at an English accent since Greg Peck in "Guns of Navarone", and if the rank misogyny of having Carol White's abductee be the most hateful character in the film doesn't bother you too much then you should, as I did, have a pretty fun time of it. Give it a B minus.

I finally viewed "The Squeeze" (1977) after reading that it was like "The Sweeney," all 53 hard-hitting, snappy TV episodes I very much enjoyed but alas, despite a star-studded cast and gritty London locales, "The Squeeze" had me checking the time every 5 minutes, not a good sign, but still I slogged through it, starting with a slow falling-down drunk opener, the exact opposite of "The Sweeney." Stacey Keach is a handsome, soft spoken leading man but not a hard-boiled private eye, as this script has him too pathetic, vulernable, meek, mild and apologetic. Still, "The Squeeze" also includes Dennis Hemming of "Blow Up" and Stephen Boyd's final movie role. I was always wild about Boyd but he smoked too much and accepted too many tasteless parts which ruined his looks and his health. Here he is the especially rotten crime boss Vic with huge unflattering sideburns and a tight-fitting wardrobe (red check gingham shirt, big red carnation, small tweedy hat -- ugh!) And spouting a belief system about God and reincarnation - but Vic is an unnecessarily violent, leering gangster. I did like the clever, unorthodox ending.

The British 1976 crime drama, an early work of director Michael Apted ("Gorky Park", "Blink", "The World Is Not Enough") Stacey Keach plays an alcohol-addicted London ex-cop who becomes involved into a kidnapping drama and tries to free the daughter of a friend from a brutal gangster mob.

Stacey Keach's performance is brilliant, and Michael Apted is not only focussing on the thrilling crime plot but also on the portrait of a self-destroying loser nature and alcoholic. The rest of the cast is also outstanding, featuring Edward Fox as despaired father of the kidnapped daughter and David Hemmings as brutal gangster boss. There are some scenes of typical seventies' sex, hard violence and breath-taking action like a money transporter robbery at the end.

David Hentschel's electronic progressive rock score in the style of Goblin, Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons Project supports the dark atmosphere and hard action of this thrilling and sometimes disturbing crime drama. A great, little forgotten movie.

Following the recent death of Michael Apted, I saw mention of this "lost gem" as a companion piece to Get Carter and the Long Good Friday. A tough comparison, given that these latter two are stone-cold classics, and I'd never even heard of this one. I thought therefore that I really ought to check it out, and found a grainy copy on YouTube (allegedly from a DVD copy of a VHS!) - so there may be better transfers out there, but this sufficed.

Simply stated, it's not bad and I can see why it has the reputation it has amongst those who have seen it. Reasonable plot, some quite hard-edged action in places and some good performances - including a surprising turn from Freddie Starr!

Definitely worth a watch.

Stacy Keach. David Hemmings. Edward Fox. Stephen Boyd. Carol White. And Freddie Starr. Made in 1977 by Michael Apted, they rarely show films like The Squeeze on telly anymore and at time of writing, it's yet to even receive a DVD release. And this is outrageous really because, grim and seedy as you like, it remains one of the most underrated and authentic Brit-crime thrillers to ever leave its grubby prints on the screen.

A large part of that authenticity lies with its gritty locations: a cigarette smoke-fugged London Underground, dismal pubs and Soho 'massage parlours', and a pre-gentrified Battersea and Clapham, vividly portrayed in birds-eye view. Familiar currency to a certain iconic 1970s British cop show...

Drunken former cop Jim Naboth (Stacy Keach) gets experimental treatment. He's now dry, but no longer in Scotland Yard. Foreman (Edward Fox) barges in looking his wife and daughter. She happens to be Jim's ex-wife. Keith (David Hemmings) and his gang had kidnapped them for ransom.

Director Michael Apted is doing a British crime drama. It's a good example of 70's gritty crime movie. Stripping Stacy Keach naked is very memorable. The pacing is uneven at times. I would like for the tension to stay at a higher level and build up better. The actors are all great. This is solid work and fitting for the 70's.

Tough, hard hitting British thriller about an ex Scotland yard man, played very convincingly by Stacy Keach, now trying to keep from becoming a confirmed alcoholic. He finds his old skills are needed again when his wife is kidnapped. The cast are excellent, and they, along with the no holds barred script make this one of the best thrillers of the 70's

Whilst it's no Get Carter or Long Good Friday it has a good cast and some great performances and loads of wonderful late 1970s London location shots.

Overall though it doesn't really hang together and the score has aged especially badly.

Still, for anyone who, like me, enjoys old episodes of The Sweeney for a bit of gritty 1970s culture and old location shots, The Squeeze is another must see.

Michael Apted directs this TV movie, THE SQUEEZE, with the usual levels of violence and less than logically motivated characters.

In THE SQUEEZE, he has a decent cast to work with, although I find Stacy Keach an inexplicably sad sod as the inveterate drunk former police inspector Jim Naboth: why he drank his way to getting kicked out of the force when he had a beautiful wife and two beloved sons is never made clear; why he keeps wallowing in self-pity even less; his great good luck is that he has a loyal chum in Teddy (Fred Starr) who, as Keach's friendly nurse points out, may actually be in love with Keach.

Edward Fox and Stephen Boyd (I did not realize the Massala of BEN-HUR fame was born in Northern Ireland, his accent is a mixture) deliver fit performances, the former as rich man whose wife and daughter have been abducted and has to cough up 1 million quid, the latter as a smiling evil doer.

I was less impressed with the part awarded to David Hemmings, especially because such a cagey and ever suspecting fellow should not get killed so easily and in open view of Naboth's shot.

Some male and female nudity that adds no significance to the story, apart from indicating that Naboth's ex and Fox's current wife willingly screws anything that moves. Rather washed out and basic cinematography typical of the 1970s. Plenty of swearing bringing you London's local lingo and squalid color at that time.

Great sequence aboard Edward Fox's yacht.

Watchable if not exactly memorable. 7/10.

From an American standpoint, I can confidently state that "The Squeeze" is a very good , though grim, crime drama. Understanding the British dialects is challenging as expected, however the story is compelling enough to keep one watching. Stacy Keach is excellent as the alcoholic ex detective, although his constant struggle to overcome an addiction is depressing. Carol White, as Keach's ex Wife does whatever she can to protect her Daughter, including a very erotic strip tease. Dealing with both the kidnapping and the booze is at times frustrating. I feel things could have moved along at a brisker pace. With some tightening, "The Squeeze" might have been a slightly better film. - MERK

A few major flaws. Its really slow pacing made things confusing and dampened any tension. The ex-cop's drinking problem was taken more seriously than the kidnapping. And the last minute climatic ending was disappointing.

------------------------------ My IMDb ratings 1 Deliberately botched 2 I don't want to see it 3 I FF'd through it 4 Bad 5 I don't get it 6 Good 7 Great but with a major flaw 8 Great 9 Noir with moral 10 Inspiring with moral.

When Edward Fox's stepdaughter and wife are abducted, he calls on her former husband, ex-cop and alcoholic Stacy Keach.

Michael Apted's feature film is pretty much a paint-by-numbers affair, and a grim one too. Like Get Carter, it doesn't soften anyone involved. Could this be the last, lingering loosening of the Production Code? Westerns had gotten rid of any softness or niceties in the 1960s, with the spaghetti westerns leading the way, but that genre had been dying off, in one form or another, since the 1920s. That calls for constant reinvention, boundary-pushing, and so forth. Crime and detective movies, however, have been steady money-makers since fiction movies began. True, the really grim ones like the Warner Brothers pre-codes, had been curbed by the Code, but how many malapropism-spewing henchmen with Brooklyn accents were there in reality?

This particular subgenre would reach mania with Charles Bronson and the "Dirty Harry" movies, before settling into the fantasy of Chuck Norris, and the current fantasy of things like the Fast & Furious franchise. The bad guys are not only kidnappers, they are gang rapists and murderers. Keach is not much more principled, coming out of aversion therapy for his boozing. Apted favors very quick edits; apparently he was not in favor of the shaky-cam school of camerawork, so this substitutes for that. The actors do what they can but there seems little depth in their characters. They are what they do.

That is a constant in Apted's later work, where people are often pushed into doing the right thing. Here, it's doing what it can with a script meant to shock rather than illuminate. If the location work makes it look authentic, well, that's good.

What a great film I saw it twice at cinemas 1 time It was a support film for one of the Sweeney movies in the days you got 2 films for you money. It is a classic 70s cop film,hard drinking,hard working & tough guy cop,it was about the time of S.Keachs drug burst if you remember it,he is now appearing on channel 5 s prison escape drama. I don't think that Carol White was in many films after this. If you was in London in the seventies you would recognise the greyness and the fact there was no drinking after the pubs close at 14.30 until 17.30,this film should be regarded with the same respect that the Long Good Friday is now being regarded as a seminal 80s film. I have tried to buy it on DVD but it does not appear to be released.

This is a cracker of a movie. There are good performances all round, and some stylish direction from former documentary film-maker Michael Apted. Watch out for some shaky camera work in some scenes. He later on gave us Gorillas in the Mist, among many others. The main surprise in this, is how great Freddie Starr performs in his only film role. And it was certainly an inspired piece of casting-whoever is responsible, I take my hat off to you. Though it looks low budget, there are quite a few top weight actors in it, even by 1970s standards such as Edward Fox, and the late David Hemmings. Sheila White, the poor cow of the '60s does a fine job as the kidnapped wife of Fox's character.

It's not hard to see why Stacy Keach is so good as a man fighting substance abuse. He later on had his own troubles when he was caught entering the UK with drugs in 1984. Some years before, he portrayed a low grade boxer in Fat City with a young Jeff Bridges.

This was made in the '70s, it's quite violent and rough around the edges. You have been warned. Enjoy it anyway.