Gumshoe **** (1971, Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour, Fulton Mackay) – Classic Movie Review 3,328

Stephen Frears’s excellent 1971 British black comedy neo-noir film Gumshoe provides a heaven-sent acting chance for Albert Finney as a bingo caller who dreams of being a private eye.

Director Stephen Frears’s excellent 1971 British neo-noir retro-gangster yarn provides a heaven-sent acting opportunity for Albert Finney as Eddie Ginley, a music-hall comedian/ nightclub bingo caller who really wants to be Dashiell Hammett’s legendary fictional private detective Sam Spade.

So, on his 31st birthday, Liverpool bingo hall caller Ginley starts a new career and turns himself into a private eye, er gumshoe, with an advert he places in the local newspaper, wearing a trench coat and talking in rapid-fire dialogue à la Humphrey Bogart. He takes on the job of investigating a dangerous case involving murder, weapons smuggling and drugs when a drug-addicted fat man called De Fries (George Silver) hires him by phone, luring him to a hotel room where he finds a package containing a gun, a large sum of money (£1,000 – it was a long tine ago!) and a photograph of a woman (Carolyn Seymour).

Gumshoe pulls off that clever difficult trick of being gripping both as a black comedy spoof and as a noir thriller, thanks to the clever screenplay by Neville Smith (who also has an acting role as Arthur) and Frears’s taut, attentive direction. Chris Menges’s cinematography, Richard Rambaut’s production designs, the Liverpool locations, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score and the many able co-stars all make notable contributions to the success. Finney executive produced, with his Memorial Enterprises business partner Michael Medwin and David Barber.

Gumshoe also stars Billie Whitelaw as Ellen, Frank Finlay as Ginley’s obnoxious and non-supportive brother William, Janice Rule as Mrs Blankerscoon and Fulton Mackay as Straker, all of them excellent. Also in the cast are George Innes, Billy Dean, Wendy Richard, Maureen Lipman, Oscar James, Ken Jones, Tom Kempinski, Joey Kenyon, Bert King, Harry Hutchinson and Sammy Sharples.

Sam Spade was of course most famously played by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Release date: December 1971 (UK).

Gumshoe is directed by Stephen Frears, runs 88 minutes, is made by Memorial Enterprises, is released by Columbia-Warner Distributors, is written by Neville Smith, is shot by Chris Menges, is produced by Michael Medwin, Albert Finney and David Barber, is scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and is designed by Richard Rambaut.

Locations

The shots of the Liverpool locations are even more valuable now that many of the buildings have long since been demolished. The film also features the esoteric Atlantis Bookshop in Museum Street, London. It was started by Michael Houghton in 1922 and is a rare London independent bookshop survivor, now owned and run by Bali Beskin and her mother Geraldine.

Score

Andrew Lloyd Webber had written some of the score for his abandoned musical Sunset Boulevard. When he resumed work on the musical years later, the music was restored to its original place. Around this time Webber also wrote the score for The Odessa File (1974). British rock ‘n roll singer Roy Young recorded the song ‘Baby, You’re Good For Me’ by Webber and Tim Rice.

Cast

The cast are Albert Finney as Eddie Ginley, Billie Whitelaw as Ellen, Frank Finlay as William, Janice Rule as Mrs Blankerscoon, Carolyn Seymour as Alison, Fulton Mackay as Straker, Billy Dean as Tommy, George Silver as De Fries, George Innes as bookshop proprietor, Neville Smith as Arthur, Bert King as Mal, Ken Jones as Labour Exchange clerk, Maureen Lipman as Naomi, Wendy Richard as Anne Scott, Oscar James as Azinge, Tom Kempinski as psychiatrist, Joey Kenyon, Bert King, Harry Hutchinson and Sammy Sharples.

Janice Rule (August 15, 1931 – October 17, 2003)

Billie Whitelaw (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014)

Frank Finlay CBE (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016).

Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) 

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,328

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/