Gumshoe

The movie clearly is a homage to noirs and full with great dialogues. It comical contrasts the noir tropes with the mundane world of 70s Liverpool. It also an acknowledgement of the power of movie fantasy; everyone tolerates and plays along with Eddie by joining him in his banters; the movie is saying we all would love to be in the fantasy of old school noir movie, making this an antidote to the bleak realism of kitchen sink dramas.

Oddly pitched between affectionate homage and crime drama, it’s sort of a cross between BILLY LIAR and PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (the London production starring Dudley Moore opened on 11 September 1969), but less whimsical or witty or wise than either of those. Leaving aside the protagonist’s rather crude racism, which is not really redeemed by the vaguely apartheid-related plot, there is also the fact that three times he makes a girl remove her glasses to see or show how pretty she is. Three times!

64.500

while the comedy aspects are an undeniable failure this movie succeeds in digging it's fingers right into some sort of spillaine inspired hard boiled detective mystery--which in it's self is a tremendous achievement. some core plot elements and the direction are lacking so it ends up being a pretty decent mystery, but the failed jokes add enough dead weight to push it down to simply ok.

A hilarious and underrated spoof of classic Noir films, Gumshoe offers an interesting study in the difficulty of transposing the myth (40's L.A. urban scenery, femme fatale, guns and other ingredients compulsory to the genre) into the grim early 70's Liverpool. Poor Eddie is never taken seriously: "d'you use that to stir your tea?" his ex blurts out after he feigns to point his gun at her. This constant discrepancy between his dream world and reality is what makes this film so endearing.