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Gumshoe

  • 1971
  • GP
  • 1h 26m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
Gumshoe (1971)
Gumshoe: What Do You Want To Do?
Play clip0:54
Watch Gumshoe: What Do You Want To Do?
1 Video
36 Photos
ComedyCrimeDramaMystery

Inspired by his love for Dashiell Hammett novels, nightclub comedian Eddie Ginley puts an ad in the paper as a private eye. The case he gets turns out to be a strange setup and as he digs to... Read allInspired by his love for Dashiell Hammett novels, nightclub comedian Eddie Ginley puts an ad in the paper as a private eye. The case he gets turns out to be a strange setup and as he digs to the bottom of it his life starts falling apart.Inspired by his love for Dashiell Hammett novels, nightclub comedian Eddie Ginley puts an ad in the paper as a private eye. The case he gets turns out to be a strange setup and as he digs to the bottom of it his life starts falling apart.

  • Director
    • Stephen Frears
  • Writer
    • Neville Smith
  • Stars
    • Albert Finney
    • Billie Whitelaw
    • Frank Finlay
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.4/10
    1.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Stephen Frears
    • Writer
      • Neville Smith
    • Stars
      • Albert Finney
      • Billie Whitelaw
      • Frank Finlay
    • 36User reviews
    • 25Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Gumshoe: What Do You Want To Do?
    Clip 0:54
    Gumshoe: What Do You Want To Do?

    Photos36

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    Top cast35

    Edit
    Albert Finney
    Albert Finney
    • Eddie Ginley
    Billie Whitelaw
    Billie Whitelaw
    • Ellen
    Frank Finlay
    Frank Finlay
    • William
    Janice Rule
    Janice Rule
    • Mrs. Blankerscoon
    Carolyn Seymour
    Carolyn Seymour
    • Alison
    Fulton Mackay
    Fulton Mackay
    • Straker
    George Innes
    George Innes
    • Bookshop Proprietor
    George Silver
    • De Fries
    Bill Dean
    Bill Dean
    • Tommy
    • (as Billy Dean)
    Wendy Richard
    Wendy Richard
    • Anne Scott
    Maureen Lipman
    Maureen Lipman
    • Naomi
    Neville Smith
    • Arthur
    Oscar James
    • Azinge
    Joe Kenyon
    • Joey
    • (as Joey Kenyon)
    Bert King
    • Mal
    Christopher Cunningham
    • Clifford
    • (as Chris Cunningham)
    Ken Jones
    • Labour Exchange Clerk
    Tom Kempinski
    • Psychiatrist
    • Director
      • Stephen Frears
    • Writer
      • Neville Smith
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews36

    6.41.9K
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    Featured reviews

    7Pedro_H

    Strange cult movie that is not for everyone.

    A Liverpool bingo caller of the 70's enlivens his dull life by taking on an old style private detective alter-ego. Complete with raincoat and accent!

    This is one of my favourite cult movies and this might be a good chance to try and look inside my own mind and find out why. Leading with the negatives, this film has a few ideas, but not enough to make a full film out of them. If you feel that some of the scenes are padding (quite a lot actually) then you are right!

    Finney fancies himself as a kind of Sam Spade let loose on a Liverpool of the 1970's (interesting to see it like it was in the 60's) and we enter the slightly seedy world of the working man's club. Something that those outside of the UK will find hard to grasp -- a kind of cheap private drinking hole meets low rent cabaret.

    The real problem is that the thing is weakened by non of the parties (especially the lead) seeming to be taking the case seriously, which means that while he is in limited danger we are more yawning than sitting on the edge of our seats.

    What makes it for me is the fast word play of Finney and the general irony of the script in going in to places that fashion says we shouldn't be going. It leads up to a giant feeling of so-what -- but I like to see movies that are a bit different and it always holds me in its strange faded and seedy grip. Maybe it has something to do with having been to these sorts of places myself.
    8purple-67343

    Complicated but good- great song at end!

    I found it rather hard to follow-but it never bores. Some nice cameos from Ken Jones, Wendy Richard and especially Fulton Mackay. Sadly- Janice Rule seems to play as if she's a 'Bond' Villain/ess The only real below performance for me. The film ends on a tremendous 50s pastiche of a song "Baby You're Good For Me" by Roy Young! Why on earth wasn't this put out as a single- i'll never know!? Amazingly written by Lloyd Weber & Rice! For that- i'd give the pair a day out of hell as reward!
    9csrothwec

    Superb writing and acting make this as fresh as when first released

    I recently saw this for the fourth time, the first time having been in the cinema upon its release. This first viewing saw me classifying it as a pastiche along the lines of Woody Allen's "Play it again, Sam" or "The Black Bird" with George Segal. In fact, the script and acting of "Gumshoe" make it infinitely better than either of these two and put it into that rare category of films, which actually get BETTER with each viewing. For a film approaching its fortieth anniversary, obviously much of the background, (such as the physical locations in Liverpool and Billie Whitelaw's being 'locked' into her loveless marriage with Frank Finlay), are now museum pieces/views into the past. Overall, though, the film still comes across as amazingly fresh and entertains from beginning to end. The lightning speed patter and one-liners are razor sharp and the performances by ALL of the lead characters are stunning. The nearest parallel I can find is "The Third Man" and, while it is definitely not in that category overall, I still think this is a very good film indeed which was vastly underestimated when it first came out,(for example by me!), and which only grows in stature and the enjoyment it affords with each renewed viewing.
    bob the moo

    A curiosity but, aside from a solid final third, it is too inconsistent and uncertain to really get into

    Eddie Ginley is a Liverpudlian who works as an announcer and caller at the local bingo hall. However he has tired of his current profession and decides to take out a small ad marketing himself as a private eye. Almost immediately Ginley finds work coming his way in the form of a packaging containing £1000, a gun and a photograph of a young woman. Unsure quite what is being asked of him, Ginley tries to get answers but just finds himself getting in over his head very quickly.

    An interesting concept is not really that well delivered in this erratic and inconsistent film. The story lifts the genre traditions of the Sam Spade style detective novel and places it down in early 1970's Liverpool. This culture clash offered an interesting film but sadly it is the lack of certainty about what it is trying to achieve that ultimately lets it down. At times it is quite engaging in regards the mystery but then at other times it seems to be not taking it seriously and happy to have it as a canvas for making genre gags. It gets stronger in the final third but up till then it doesn't engage in the way as true detective story of the genre should do. The chance to see Liverpool as it was back in the late sixties/early seventies is welcome but I didn't think that the two cultures were worked into one another that well – it seemed the film was content to leave the juxtaposition as a gag and nothing more.

    The cast work surprisingly well with this and they try and play it for what it is the best they can. Finney leads the cast well but is weak when the material is weak; his changing accent bugged me to some degree but playing the case hard saw him becoming more what the genre requires. His support is mostly good because they fit in with the sectioned tone well – really it is Finney that suffers more than anyone else because he has to try and fit in with each scene.

    Overall this is more a curio than a good film in its own right. Not till the final third does it decide how it wants to play it for sure and as a result it is mostly uneven and hard to get into. I did enjoy the pace and grit of the final third but I did wonder why it was left so late in the game to pull it all together and get moving.
    8dglink

    Finney as Bogie

    Produced early in Stephen Frears's nearly forty-year career, "Gumshoe" is an affectionate take on the Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler film adaptations that were popular in the 1940's. The movie is great fun, and Bogie aficionados will be especially pleased, if they can decipher the often-impenetrable British accents. Like "The Big Sleep" and other films of the private-eye genre, the plot is a series of seemingly unconnected events that, in this case, almost literally come together at the denouement. The smart banter between Bogart and Bacall echoes in the breathless quips that Albert Finney and Billie Whitelaw trade in some of the film's best moments. A Sydney Greenstreet wannabe is known simply as the fat man, and a dangerous beauty in the persona of Janice Rule is the requisite duplicitous fatale.

    As handsome as he was in "Two for the Road" a few years earlier, Finney appears to be having fun as Eddie Ginley, an English Sam Spade. He has the appropriately rumpled demeanor and looks good in a trench coat. His deadpan film-noir-style narration enhances the 1940's feel, although, despite the gritty color, the film cries out for the velvety light and shadows of black-and-white photography. Short, entertaining, and well made on all counts, "Gumshoe" is a minor gem that merits more attention. The film predates "Prick Up Your Ears" and "My Beautiful Laundrette," the director's two breakout films from the mid-1980s, and, after the success of "The Queen" in 2006, viewers owe themselves the pleasure of discovering the talent on display in Stephen Frears's early efforts.

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    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Albert Finney was originally going to direct this film, having recently directed Charlie Bubbles (1968), but he was so immersed in his characterization for the film that he decided to forego directing the picture, and handed over the reins to his Charlie Bubbles (1968) assistant Stephen Frears.
    • Quotes

      Tommy: [recommending a man for criminal activity] Joey. He's muscle. He fought Rommel. Rommel lost.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening Columbia logo does not have the Columbia name on it, just the lady with the torch.
    • Connections
      Referenced in Red Dwarf: Gunmen of the Apocalypse (1993)
    • Soundtracks
      Baby, you're good for me
      Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

      Lyrics by Tim Rice

      Sung by Roy Young

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    FAQ17

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 21, 1972 (Ireland)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Official site
      • Sony Movie Channel (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Auf leisen Sohlen
    • Filming locations
      • Aquarius Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, London, England, UK(Their shipping label is a clue for Eddie)
    • Production companies
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Memorial Enterprises
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross US & Canada
      • $143,658
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 26m(86 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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