THE SQUEEZE

GB
1977
1hr 44mins
Dir: Michael Apted
Starring: David Hemmings and Carol White

A former police officer rescues his wife from kidnappers

This largely neglected and rather overlooked gangster thriller is now much admired, but the opening scenes leave a lot to be desired. A drunk Stacy Keach alights from 1962-built tube stock at what is probably Aldwych station, then climbs the escalators at St. Johns Wood, before being taken away by ambulance from the ticket hall of Temple station, not a deep-level tube with escalators! The film also includes a semi-distant night shot of a Hammersmith & City Line train of C Stock running alongside London’s elevated section of the A40 Westway, and a brief glimpse out of a warehouse window of a passing Class 302 EMU. The film was based on the 1974 novel Whose Little Girl Are You? by James Tucker which was released in the US as The Squeeze. The film took the US title of the novel as one of the main characters was American actor Stacy Keach.

A wrecked Stacy Keach on a 1962 stock tube train
Although not confirmed, the green rings to the ceiling of the station suggest strongly that this is Aldwych
These are the unique art-deco escalators at St. Johns Wood
Yet despite the previous screen capture, these are the stairs at Temple
As the camera looks out of the smashed glass of a derelict warehouse window a Class 302 EMU rattles past