Wonderful character development!

the audience applauded

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Obviously, Fans of Film-Noir, Chandler, Hammett, and the Detective Movies of the Forties will Enjoy this Homage More than Casual Movie Goers. Directorial Debut for Stephen Frears, it Features a Fine Fast Talking Performance from Albert Finney as the Titular Character.Not Really a Detective, He Fancies Himself in the Role as He is Obsessed with Bogart and the Retro Pulp Fiction of a Genre that was Decades Old Even in the Early Seventies. It's a Complicated Yet Simple Plot of a Girl, a Gun, and Money.The Highlight is Finney's Fondness for Talking Like Bogart and Machine Gunning Dialog that is so Vibrant One can Hardly Keep Up. There is a Breezy Take on All of this that Changes Tones from Comedic Zingers to Strong Violence.Overall, a Cult Movie that is Highly Recommended for its Target Audience. It's Never Going to Attain Mainstream Status, its Just too Quirky. That's the Charm.

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.

This film buzzes with excitement and whips along at a great pace. It's cliché precisely because Eddie Ginley sees everything that way. That's the charm. The script works well, and is a delight if you concentrate (!) All the actors give deeply - the sparring between Finlay and Finney is marvellous. How they kept straight faces is a mystery - they seem to be enjoying it so much. All the locations are raw and stark but never over-done or contrived. What you see is what there was in 1970's Liverpool and London. A thoroughly enjoyable film with a top-class cast.

An excellent cast does its utmost, but the results can be characterized as uneven at best. This movie had many clever ideas, and should have saved half of them for another film. It also alternates uncomfortable between laughing at its characters and laughing with them. Still, there are several brilliant scenes that will reward those with the tenacity to stick with it, especially in the film's last third. My rating -- 6/10.