Gumshoe (1971)

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writer:

Neville Smith (written by)

Release Date:

December 1971 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

Ginley's a gumshoe. Ginley's got guts. Ginley's got a gun.

Plot:

Ginley (Albert Finney) is a nightclub bingo caller eager for a career change. On his thirty-first birthday...

Plot Keywords:

Bingo | Smuggler | Liverpool | Bookstore | Library

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 win

Cast

Albert Finney	...	Eddie Ginley
Billie Whitelaw	...	Ellen
Frank Finlay	...	William
Janice Rule	...	Mrs. Blankerscoon
Carolyn Seymour	...	Alison
Fulton Mackay	...	Straker
George Innes	...	Bookshop Proprietor
George Silver	...	De Fries
Bill Dean	...	Tommy (as Billy Dean)
Wendy Richard	...	Anne Scott
Maureen Lipman	...	Naomi
Neville Smith	...	Arthur
Oscar James	...	Azinge
Joe Kenyon	...	Joey
Bert King	...	Mal

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | UK:AA (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Lee International Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Quotes:

Tommy: [Eddie has gone to Botha Export Co Ltd for further investigations] We're closed!
Anne Scott: Got your coat?
Tommy: Yeah!
Anne Scott: Put it on.
Tommy: Who are you?
Anne Scott: Board of Trade.
Tommy: Well, what do you want?
Anne Scott: We have Powers Of Search.
Tommy: You don't look like the Board Of Trade to me.
Anne Scott: We're changing the image. Would you sit down please. Oh, wait. You've got something on your eye. No, don't touch it, don't touch it. Leave it to me. Relax.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Red Dwarf: Gunmen of the Apocalypse (#6.3)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

Baby, You're Good For Me

"Listen little lady, you and I better go for a walk..."

Stephen Frears was the ideal choice to direct this quirky little gem. His first film before a prestigious career in television and then in Hollywood shows off his sensitivity, compassion and efficency as a film maker beautifully. Albert Finney gives an astounding performance as our hero, Eddie Ginley, whose life on the surface is far from glamorous. An unemployed Liverpudlian who gets by as a bingo caller and wannabe comic, he is loved by everyone except his repulsive brother William (Frank Finlay) and has recently had to suffer his girlfriend (Billie Whitelaw) leaving him and marrying the sinister William. Eddie however has a boyish love for film noir, the stories of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, and the music of Elvis. When he decides to advertise his services as a private detective, he finds himself up to his neck in murder, drug dealing and South African politics! Finney manages both a weathered Scouse accent and a remarkable impression of Bogart incredibly. He is a lovable character, excellently written and played, who could have sustained a whole series of films. Billie Whitelaw is the Lauren Bacall style femme fatale, and the outsanding Janice Rule the seductive villainess. A fine array of British character actors like Bill Dean, Fulton Mackay and George Innes sprinkle the whole film with colour and eccentricity. The in-jokes for fans of Bogart films are spot-on but anyone can enjoy this film, with some superb one liners and very touching moments. But the whole film is stolen fair and square by the soundtrack, courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Webber of all people! From fifties style rockers, to pensive strings to huge, grandiose thirties style epic themes, the score is a delight. The finest moment is suely Eddie's outwitting of the irreplaceable Fulton MacKay on a tube train. Writer Neville Smith (who plays a small role) showed a less humourous approach to a loner's hero worship of his idols in his 1979 tv play Long Distance Information, in which he played the lead character, Christian, an Elvis obsessed DJ who is working on the night of the King's death. Gumshoe is not really a comedy though, but a pastiche, affectionate and observant. It does have it's dark moments though, including a heroin suicide and a couple of moments of violence. And like any good Raymond Chandler, the plot is unbelievably complicated and the least important element!