Tue 13 Nov 2018
A PI Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: GUMSHOE (1971).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Mystery movies , Reviews[4] Comments
GUMSHOE. Columbia, 1971. Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Fulton Mackay, and Bill Dean. Written by Neville Smith. Directed by Stephen Frears.
A quirky little mystery/comedy/drama that deserves to be better remembered.
In the early 1970s, Cinephiles and Cineasts knew all about film noir, and looked back on it with affection. But to ordinary Cinners in the movie-going public, it all seemed a bit passé, and so this clever pastiche went largely unseen and unsung. Too bad, because it’s a dandy little film.
The story, as far as I can make out, centers on Eddie Ginley (Finney) a failure at 31 who ekes out a living as a Bingo Caller and dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. His long-time girlfriend (Whitelaw) left him to marry his brother, and he’s seeing a Psychiatrist:
“I owe it all to you, Doc.”
For a birthday present to himself, he puts an ad in the paper:
GUMSHOE’S THE GAME
No Divorce Work
To his surprise, a mysterious phone call summons him to meet with a shady fat man, who gives him an envelope with a picture of a girl, a thousand pounds, and a gun. So the chase is on: to find the girl, learn who wants to kill her, and why—a chase complicated by his ex-girlfriend-now-sister-in-law; a femme fatale (Rule) who wants him off the case; and the real hit man who was supposed to pick up the package Eddie got by mistake.
If it all sounds complicated, well that ain’t the half of it, and it’s further obfuscated by sudden shifts in tone from action to drama to comedy. This was the first feature film of Stephen Frears (and of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, come to think of it) and he opts for speed, with lines bouncing around like something from a Howard Hawks movie:
Eddie: I’m all shook up.
Anne: What’s your name?
Eddie: Modelling. Clay Modelling.
Anne: I don’t think I fancy you, Modelling.
Eddie: Work on it.
Anne: I like tall men.
Eddie: The Seven Dwarves got Snow White.
Anne: Only because they crowded her.
The Big Sleep comes to mind, doesn’t it? And like that classic, Gumshoe leaves no time to wonder if it makes sense –which it doesn’t. What it does is provide 86 minutes of laughs, surprises, suspense and drama. And what more could you ask, anyway?
November 13th, 2018 at 11:18 pm
The lines are cute and the whole thing seems better than I remembered. By a lot.
November 14th, 2018 at 9:27 am
Marvelous little film. Glad to see it reviewed. Worth mentioning too is the music; Finney’s character plays piano and sings; and there’s a few 1940s tunes sprinkled in among the mayhem.
The brisk plot has a surprisingly downbeat ending with that twinge you get from watching characters make life-changing mistakes; but near the end Eddie comes to his senses and realizes he’s been playing out a fantasy while other people are actually hurting and getting hurt. But in bittersweet/uplifting fashion, his gain is that he gets his life back on track in the tradition of Woody Allen’s “Play it Again, Sam”.
The final lines of the flick where Eddie confronts his erstwhile nemesis –the villain who’s been playing him for a patsy–are crisply delivered; I used to have them on a recording somewhere because I wanted the ending-music. So, for years I knew those lines by heart. Wish I still had them in my memory bank right now; it’s a satisfying final scene.
November 15th, 2018 at 10:56 am
Sounds dandy.
November 15th, 2018 at 7:07 pm
This one had a cult following among noir lovers for years, in part because Finny’s Eddie is a bit more serious and downbeat than he seems.
It’s one of the better British private eye outings that feels as if everyone involved had actually seen and loved the films they were both honoring and poling affectionate fun at.