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Gumshoe (1971)

Gumshoe (1971)
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Part spoof and part "straight," Gumshoe comes off as an affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled detective films of yore. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a Liverpool bingo-caller and erstwhile comedian who has been weaned on the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. Fancying himself an ace detective, Ginley quits his job to form his own agency. Before long, he is involved in a complex mystery with decided echoes of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, replete with femme fatale (Janice Rule) and sinister fat man (George Silver). Armed with little more than a slick line of patter, Ginley plunges into this baffling case, while his level-headed brother (Frank Finlay) and sister-in-law (Billie Whitelaw) try to talk him out of it. Despite its satirical content, Gumshoe turns out to be a fascinating mystery yarn on its own terms. Albert Finney also produced the film, while none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber supplied the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, (more)
Director(s):
Stephen Frears
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Gumshoe

Part spoof and part "straight," Gumshoe comes off as an affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled detective films of yore. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a Liverpool bingo-caller and erstwhile comedian who has been weaned on the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. Fancying himself an ace detective, Ginley quits his job to form his own agency. Before long, he is involved in a complex mystery with decided echoes of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, replete with femme fatale (Janice Rule) and sinister fat man (George Silver). Armed with little more than a slick line of patter, Ginley plunges into this baffling case, while his level-headed brother (Frank Finlay) and sister-in-law (Billie Whitelaw) try to talk him out of it. Despite its satirical content, Gumshoe turns out to be a fascinating mystery yarn on its own terms. Albert Finney also produced the film, while none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber supplied the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Complete Cast of Gumshoe


Director(s):
Stephen Frears
Writer(s):
Neville Smith
Producer(s):
Michael Medwin
Categories:
Mystery & Suspense, Comedy
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    Thomas B.

    I can not recommend this motion picture. Albert Finney is a bingo hall caller who reads mystery novels. He inspires to be a stand – up comedian and private eye. He runs a newspaper advertisement and gets a case that is totally confusing and not very interesting. It involves his ex-girlfriend who married his successful brother, a student and her black friend, a fat man, another mysterious woman, a man who should have gotten the case in the first place and a bunch of other characters all jammed into a movie that has a run time of less than 90 minutes. You need a lot more than a fat man and a book store to do a decent spoof of the P. I. films of the 1940's. Gun running, drugs, apartheid were poor choices for the plot. Finney's scenes with his ex-girlfriend were many and forced. There was nothing clever about this picture.

    Yes   |   No

     
    Angela T.

    It's been a long time since I shut off a movie before it was over...I did with this one! It is very slow paced. the "comedy" isn't funny. You just keep waiting for something to happen. But it never does.

    Yes   |   No

     
    Eric C.

    I thought this movie was based on the crappy Nintendo game of the same name. Nope. Like dragging my nuts through thumb tacks.

    Yes   |   No

     
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