Gumshoe (1972)

Editor's Note GUMSHOE, the directorial debut of British director Stephen Frears, is an entertaining salute to Hollywood's classic private eye movies. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a second-rate British vaudevillian who has always been a fan of detective books and films. He finally gets the chance to make his fantasies a reality when there's a murder and he plays "gumshoe" to find the killer, much to the chagrin of his level-headed brother (Frank Finlay) and sister-in-law (Billie Whitelaw). In the process, he gets mixed up with the members of a black South African liberation movement, a mysterious and sinister "fat man" (George Silver), patterned after character actor Sydney Greenstreet, and an attractive American married woman (Janice Rule). As Eddie comes closer to solving the mystery, the film offers numerous plot twists, along with a lot of laughs.

	Albert Finney
	Billie Whitelaw
	Janice Rule
	Frank Finlay
	Stephen Frears - Director

Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a part-time British comic who dreams of becoming a detective, and when he suddenly gets the chance, he finds himself in the middle of a murder and way over his usually empty head. This hysterical satire of hard-boiled detective movies offers numerous twists and turns and hilarious plot-twists as Eddie plays "gumshoe."

"The Plaza Hotel is the kind of place where the Axminster tickles your knees and you need a black tie to take a bath."----Eddie Ginley (Albert Finney)

"Sam Spade: Ginley's the name, gumshoe's the game. Private investigation. No divorce work."----a classified ad that Eddie Ginley puts in a newspaper

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] fresh, entertaining take on the early 1970s....The old-fashioned movie-pastiche score is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's better credits." 09/01/2007 p.163