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. >
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. >