Controrapina

I fell asleep watching this movie but admittedly only for the last ten minutes. The storyline is not explained well, it was only today I discovered what the value of the theft was and the background. The start was terrible, I thought I had missed something. The parts where characters stare at each other for long periods does not improve the tension or the plot... just made me lose interest. Is worth a watch if you are drunk however as it provides plenty to laugh about. I have seen the end and it did not improve the movie for me. Having bought this for £5 in a box set of "20 Great Action Adventure Movies" I do not feel ripped off, I feel I have obtained A useful tool for entertaining myself and my friends... but not in the way the director intended. I will not advise people to avoid this. The story is good but the way it has been put across to the audience is poor and maybe some more time could have been taken. There is a hint that there was some talent behind this movie as the shots of New York are beautifully gritty and not all glossy. Do watch this, even if just for a quick laugh before moving onto something better.

This Italian produced, NYC lensed heist picture is actually quite entertaining with a few nice twists. Retired safe cracker Chris Gretchko (Lee Van Cleef) is lured to a job by the son (Edward Albert) of an ex-buddy. He flies to NYC and finds out he will be lifting $1 million in diamonds for a shady German group. It all goes smoothly until he learns that the group has plans to kill the second he has the safe open. Directed by Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony Dawson), this flick benefits from a clever script, great performances and evocative locations in New York. Van Cleef is his usual gruff self and he plays most scenes off Albert or hippie chick/life saver Karen Black. Lionel Stander appears as Gretchko's old-time fence. Supporting roles include Peter Carsten as the German mob boss, Ron Van Clief as some karate chopping muscle and soon to be character actor Roy Brocksmith (the bald, fat guy from TOTAL RECALL) as the guy who gets ripped off.

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.

I think that people such as Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin must have passed on this film before the producers got to Lee Van Cleef. In The Squeeze Van Cleef plays a retired safecracker who apparently quit at the top of his game over a decade earlier. Edward Albert son of an old friend lures him back with a job offer to steal some diamonds.

Seeing them and folks like Karen Black as a ditzy hippe chick, Lionel Stander as a pawnbroker friend of Van Cleef's, and Robert Alda as a police inspector always a step of two behind is always nice. His employers want to betray Van Cleef, but he didn't survive as long as he has by being stupid.

The Squeeze has some dull patches and an annoying soundtrack of some of the worst 70s music. It's also a sad commentary on the human condition, nobody can trust nobody with one exception.

...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...