The Squeeze (1977)

The Squeeze (1977) has never been accorded the same sort of status as the likes of Get Carter (1971) or The Long Good Friday (1980) in the pantheon of British crime movies.  Indeed, you'll rarely find it mentioned in discussions of the genre.  In large  part this is due to its lack of visibility, it hasn't had a network TV screening in the UK for around twenty years, for instance and, to the best of my knowledge, has never had a DVD or Blu Ray release.  Indeed, the version I was able to see recently on a fairly obscure VOD Roku channel appeared to have been ripped from a VHS tape, (doubtless without authorisation).  The fact that The Squeeze has fallen into relative obscurity is a real pity, as it is far grittier than the aforementioned titles, capturing a real 'on the streets' feeling and featuring a pretty decent, if eclectic cast, which includes Stacy Keach, Stephen Boyd (in his last film role), David Hemmings, Edward Fox, Carol White and Freddie Starr.  Moreover, the film also boasts a script by Leon Griffiths (adapted from a David Craig novel) and direction from Michael Apted.  The casting reflects a degree of quirkiness on the part of the film itself, which seemingly starts as a character study of Stacy Keach's alcoholic ex-Scotland Yard man, now reduced to living on benefits in a run down council house in Notting Hill with his two young sons, before he accidentally stumbles into a kidnap plot which itself leads into a blackmail plot and eventually a heist.  As the film meanders through the various plot developments, taking in plenty of seediness, violence and sleaze along the way, the character study of Keach;s character isn't forgotten, as he hits rock-bottom, before finally, after stumbling several times, regains a degree of self-respect and earns a redemption of sorts.

It is apt that The Squeeze should have been released in the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, (although it was filmed the previous Autumn), a year now remembered for all the pomp, pageantry and waving flags.  But The Squeeze shows another side of the London, indeed the UK as a whole, in the late seventies, taking in the relative squalor that many ordinary people lived in: dirty streets, gloomy pubs, greasy cafes and decidedly unglamourous massage parlours.  This is a Britain where colonies of down and outs drink meths under motorway flyovers and 'decent' people live in crumbling rented houses, while criminals live in mansions and the police barely present on the streets.  The film, better than most others of the era I've seen, succeeds in capturing something of the actuality of seventies Britain on celluloid, (you can almost smell the rancid piss in the opening sequence at a particularly filthy and tired looking Tube station).  Doubtless, Apted's experience as a documentary maker contributed greatly to this air of realism, not to mention the degree of social commentary to be found in the film.  This is never overt, instead presented via observation - the down and outs Keach finds himself drinking with, for instance, or the fact that he has fallen so far from grace that he is now reduced to living among the Afro-Caribbean community in Notting Hill, (his neighbours are among the most 'decent' and community-minded people he encounters in the film).  

It is these characters, along with Keach's sidekick Teddy, (played by Freddie Starr), a petty crook turned mini-cab driver who still hero-worships Keach, desperately trying to get him back to be being the upstanding cop who once arrested him, who provide a moral compass and sense of integrity for Keach's  character.  Virtually all of the other main characters are either opportunistic and completely amoral villains, or are prepared  to compromise their principles in order to protect themselves: Edward Fox, for instance is prepared to kill Keach at the villains' behest and to betray his employers, while kidnap victim Carol White is willing to sleep with her captors in an obviously futile attempt to protect her daughter.  Keach's character also frequently wavers, responding to set-backs and pressure by turning to the bottle and abandoning his responsibilities, being both humiliated by the villains, (being thrown out a car naked, in front of his house, for instance), and humiliating himself along the way.  But through the kindness of his neighbours and Teddy's persistence and refusal to give up on him, (not to mention a session in a sleazy massage parlour to sweat the alcohol out of his system), he is eventually able to outmaneuver the villains and derail their heist. 

The plot itself is reasonably ingenious, with David Hemmings and his associates kidnapping the wife and young daughter of Edward Fox's security firm chief on behalf of gangster-turned-club-owner Stephen Boyd with a view to blackmailing Fox into diverting one of his security vans into an ambush.  Unfortunately, the kidnap victim is also Keach's ex-wife and the mother of his children.  This latter point is one of the plot's weaknesses - it seems unlikely that the gang wouldn't know that they were kidnapping the ex-wife of a former top Scotland Yard detective, particularly as it is established that Boyd's character is already acquainted with him.  Their decision to force fox to kill him is based solely upon the fact that they fear that Keach has unwittingly stumbled into their business and might uncover their scheme by accident, rather than his connection with the victim and the motivation it would give him to intervene, which might have made their sudden determination to eliminate Keach more convincing, not to mention logical.  That aside, for the most part, the plot proceeds in a reasonably logical pattern and, for once, the more-or-less lone hero (apart from Teddy) doesn't irrationally try to foil the heist single handed against overwhelming odds, but rather allows it to take place, instead stopping the gang in its getaway and turning the tables on Boyd having correctly identified his main weakness.  This results in the film, in effect, having a double climax - first the heist itself, carried out violently by the gang, with Boyd going full psycho, followed by Keach's intervention which involves a car crash, a shoot out and Keach extracting his revenge on Boyd by humiliating him by giving him a severe beating in front of his cherished daughter, (who Keach had kidnapped to give him some leverage on the family loving Boyd and giving the plot a degree of symmetry).

While the plot might seem to meander at times, resulting in a sometimes uneven pace, the action highlights of The Squeeze, when they come, are well staged and quite exciting.  Lacking the polish of films like Get Carter and The Long Good Friday, The Squeeze's rough around the edges feel simply adds to its air of authenticity.  Seventies London, in all its seamy glory, is captured magnificently.  Despite the high profile cast, it ultimately feels more like a low budget exploitation movie than a studio backed production, (it was produced by Warner Brothers), or even an extended episode of The Sweeney.  Apted's direction has an eye for detail that both add to the realistic feel and often help lighten the tone, to stop the film from tumbling completely into depressing sleaze and squalor, Teddy's clapped out Ford Zodiac Mk III and his constant interrupting of his attempts to assist Keach in order to take fares, for instance.  Likewise, the masseur at the massage parlour who quotes Keach the rate for 'manual relief', prompting the reply that it would be 'cheaper to do it myself', or his neighbour Mrs Delgado's observation that 'I never imagined you were a private detective, I just thought you were unemployed', help lighten an otherwise dark plot.  

Along with Apted's direction and attention to detail, the film is lifted above being an average crime thriller by the performances.  Keach, commendably, doesn't try for any kind of 'authentic' English accent, instead moderating his normal American accent.  While his performance sometimes comes over as muted, it is entirely in keeping with his character being a man who has reached rock-bottom, seeking anonymity in a bottle in the face of his fall from grace.  He communicates well the character's continual battle against the temptations of alcohol and his attempts to regain a degree of self-respect by rediscovering his skills as a detective.  Stephen Boyd is a memorably ferocious villain, reveling in violence as a for of power, yet loving his family and seeking public respectability and legitimacy.  David Hemmings is suitably smarmy and slippery as the 'brains' behind behind the kidnap scheme, while Freddie Starr is surprisingly effective as Teddy, desperately trying to restore his idol - although a cop who arrested him, also the only person who has ever treated him with any decency and humanity - to his pedestal.  Fox and White are also convincing in their roles, while Hemmings' kidnap gang includes top British film and TV villains Roy Marsden and Alan Ford.  All-in-all, The Squeeze provides some pretty good gritty entertainment and is a real pity that it isn't better known and remains difficult to see.  (Although I've now found a copy uploaded to You Tube - probably the source of the version I recently watched).

(It should be noted that, adding to the confusion when trying to get any information on this film, there are at least two US crime films which have been released or re-released under the title The Squeeze.  One is from the seventies and stars Lee Van Cleef, the other from the eighties, starring Michael Keaton.  Both are unrelated to the 1977 British film, but are much easier to actually see).