Gumshoe

SYNOPSIS

After several years directing for the Royal Court Theatre and for television, Stephen Frears made his feature debut with this wonderfully understated homage to film noir. Albert Finney excels as Eddie Ginley, the bingo caller who has dreams of writing like Dashiell Hammett and acting like Humphrey Bogart. Following the example of Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam, screenwriter Neville Smith blends fond parody with an original story that has an undeniable charm of its own. But Gumshoe also has an unexpectedly hard edge, thanks to its tough themes of drugs and gunrunning and Frears's astute snapshots of Liverpool.