Le renard de Brooklyn

...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...