★ 8 / 10
Gumshoe Ginley. Gumshoe is directed by Stephen Frears
John Chard
Gumshoe Ginley. Gumshoe is directed by Stephen Frears and written by Neville Smith. It stars Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Fulton Mackay…
Gumshoe Ginley.
Gumshoe is directed by Stephen Frears and written by Neville Smith. It stars Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Fulton Mackay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour and George Innes. Music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber and cinematography by Chris Menges.
Now William, you'd sell cancer to a dying man but you wouldn't plant a stiff on your own brother.
If we go by the volume of on line reviews and ratings, you have to believe that Gumshoe is very much under seen. Perhaps not in Britain and by Albert Finney fans? But certainly the evidence points to it slipping under the radar of many a genre lover. It has been called a pastiche, a parody and even derivative of film noir, but just because our anti hero here, a sublime Finney as a film noir loving working class British guy, plays up on the tools of the noir trade, that in no way diminishes the love for that film making style. In defence of that it probably pays to point out that director Frears would 19 years later craft one of the best exponents of neo-noir in The Grifters, so clearly the director has love in abundance for all things noir.
Eddie Ginley is a part time comic and bingo caller who is currently one of life's losers. Even his psychiatrist deems him as a nutter! So when he puts an add in the newspaper offering his services as a "Gumshoe Detective" - Sam Spade style, he finds himself thrust into a web of mystery, murder and family chaos. Yet as things get tricky, Ginley never once loses his affable calmness, he continues to live out his fantasy, firing off sharp patter to whoever he comes into contact with. No matter what is thrown at him he simply will not be flustered, and in fact proves himself far from being a "nutter" when he's called on to solve the hairy problems that start to stack up.
Frears plants it all in the rock solid turf of a working class British city, Liverpool in the main but London comes to play a part as well. Plot flits around a social club, British Rail stations and basic living accommodations, this gives the pic a grounded realism. For even as the narrative has a crafty air of comedy about it, it's not hard to feel the very real threat of danger lurking everywhere Eddie goes on to tread. The plot is a little too convoluted for its own good, ticking off femme fatales, hitmen, minders, drugs and an international conspiracy as it goes about its merry way. But as Eddie jousts with tongue (the boxing terminology flirting sequence with Wendy Richard is first class), and the script crackles with hardboiled dialogue and narration, the small niggles evaporate because we have long since fallen in love with Eddie Ginley. 8/10
★ 7 / 10
obscure,old but not a classic I think.
ib011f9545i
People will say this is a forgotten classic. I don't think it is forgotten since I have seen it on British tv over the years. I was glad to buy the blu ray the…
People will say this is a forgotten classic.
I don't think it is forgotten since I have seen it on British tv over the years.
I was glad to buy the blu ray the other day and watched with great attention.
I confess I was a bit disappointed,as others reviewers say it is of historical interest but as a film I don't think it is that entertaining.
I find it hard to describe the tone of the film,it is a comedy drama I suppose but it is not that funny and not that dramatic.
My dreamgirl Carolyn Seymour is wasted in this..
Films of this era more worth seeing would include Sort Target,Unman,Wittering and Zigo and the amazing The Reckoning.
★ 7 / 10
Charming and funny "period" piece with some odd jarring moments
LouE15
What a joy to watch this oddity from the great British director Stephen Frears' back catalogue on telly here recently. But because of certain parts in it, I…
What a joy to watch this oddity from the great British director Stephen Frears' back catalogue on telly here recently. But because of certain parts in it, I can sort of see why it has largely stayed in 1971, a cult rather than a mainstream success. The story is a funny and modern take on a classic film noir. Being a Stephen Frears film, it's overflowing with observant details that make up a free-flowing, vivid picture of life in 1971 in the mind of a young man, Eddie Ginley (a young and handsome Albert Finney) who works nights as a bingo caller in a nightclub but dreams of a future as a stand-up comic. His overachieving brother has "run off with his best girl"; he's a dreamer, obsessed with crime fiction, and wants to be a detective, and he's about to get what he wants in spades.
(Intermittent spoilers from here on in.)
It's hard to tell now (or have I lost my sense of irony?) whether Eddie's cheesy stand-up routine and his casual racism are ironic character elements or for real. The 70s really were the dark ages, so nothing would surprise me now. I don't think I'm being oversensitive: his comments to the sole black character, Danny Azinge, are horribly racist and unsubtle and unfunny. Anyone who watched "Bless this House" or "The Black & White Minstrel Show" in the 70s, and any first and second generation Black Britons will tell you that it's all too likely to have been for real. Even Danny's terrific punch to Eddie's solar plexus serves him right doesn't wholly compensate for the nasty taste those lines left in my mouth.
But I love, love, love the witty and cheeky takes on 40s noir and Chandleresque dialogue and story structure. The sexual tension between Eddie and his ex, now sister in law, Ellen (a stately Billie Whitelaw), crackles along. The Cain & Abel backstory is nicely played out. Eddie's brother William is the perfect foil: enough of a "schmuck" to make Eddie appealing, but sensible enough to be plausible second choice for Ellen.
Some parts of the film now work best as social documentary; the 1971 era fire engine, the now sadly extinct open-backed red buses; Ellen's 'snazzy' car (sounds like a super-fast tractor); the comment on Liverpool "it's not a gun town, is it?". I think Frears understood the social significance of filming realistic scenes in a dismal unemployment office, and in the working men's club; you see it in the love he shows the building, the head honcho with his fake celebrity portraits; the reactions of the crowd.
The story's pretty engrossing, and the way it's played out has all the hallmarks of a good Frears film, but it's the central love story that I find appealing. You look at the two men in her life and you understand why Ellen made the decision she did. Charming and endearing as Eddie is, and as she certainly still finds him, she got tired of waiting for him to stop being a dreamy low-rent clown. Their sad, simple kisses reflect that. He 'grows up' by the time the film reaches its conclusion, but by then it's all far too late. His life's romance is dead, but his life begins. Lovely stuff.
88%
TOMATOMETER
· 8 reviews
56%
AUDIENCE
· 250 ratings
6.4/10
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