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.

New York City is not the sort of Wild West setting I'd expect to find Lee Van Cleef in, but he shows up here as the lead in a mildly interesting caper film as an older, wiser movie villain, this time sporting a neatly trimmed beard along with the ubiquitous moustache. I'll play devil's advocate here and say that I found this picture somewhat interesting compared to most reviewers on this board. It had an eclectic cast featuring Edward Albert and Karen Black, and just to give you an idea how long it's been since I saw Lionel Stander in anything at all, it would have been way back in his 'Hart to Hart' days of the early Eighties.So most of the other reviewers give you an idea of what's going on here. I'd rather comment on such quirks in the story as the newspaper headline 'Youth Drums His Way to Jail' as Jeff Olafson (Albert) is being ushered to jail AFTER the story breaks in print. This device was pretty common in films of the Thirties and Forties, but seeing it as late as 1978 makes no sense at all. Then there's the 'Shaft' style music soundtrack for a nominally all white film except for the martial arts bad guy who appears later in the picture. And riddle me this - I don't know anything really about gunshot forensics, but how is it that blood stains still appear on a car seat twenty four hours after being submerged in salt water? Just wondering.Karen Black gets the booby prize for her performance here. I've seen her in a fair number of movies, and I'm still trying to figure out if she's attractive or not. She has a unique look and depending on your disposition, I guess she could be a looker. It happened here once in an odd close-up. Otherwise, she's involved in a neat twist at the end of the story I didn't see coming, so if you need any kind of a recommendation, that would be it.One final observation. I've made it a habit to check out product placement in the movies I watch, and this one without a doubt is the all time champion after having reviewed over twenty four hundred films so far. From the top, there's Coca Cola, Marlboro, Bacardi, Bols, Seagrams, J&B Scotch, Nescafe Coffee, Supreme Steel Wool Pads, Colt .45, Kellogg's Variety Pack Cereal, Clear Floor Wax, V-8 Juice and Miller Beer. There were a few more illegible brands besides, but I think I made my point. When all is said and done by the time the picture's over, it's pretty fair to say that you should have had a V-8.

A pretty good movie could be made from this script, and unfortunately that's the best thing I can say for it. What little there is intact in this print (from the Hollywood Legends 50 movie DVD set) has a sort of appealing 70s funkiness to it like the non-sex scenes from an old porno movie. The conversion from widescreen format and the chopped-up state of the print, however, is more like an old Benny Hill sketch, lacking the vague amusement factor. Many dialogue scenes end up being still shots of a table and lamp with actors' shoulders protruding into the scene from either side. The print seems to have been returned from a foreign land which censors out not only violence but THREATS of violence or the implication that anything vaguely violent may be about to occur. People are standing around talking, and then someone is on the floor bleeding for some reason. The fact that it was directed by the ubiquitous Margheriti comes as no surprise - I have developed a sort of affection for his quick and dirty hacking-out of economical and moderately entertaining movies. In a decent print the story has enough twists, and the actors and crew are workmanlike enough, that it might be a pretty fair experience, but this print is a real head-smacker all the way through, leaving the viewer wondering what just happened over and over again. A mystery in all the wrong ways.

...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...