Gumshoe (1971)

Description[from Freebase]

Gumshoe is a 1971 film, and was the directorial debut of British director Stephen Frears. Written by local author Neville Smith, who appears as Arthur, the film is set in Liverpool with Albert Finney playing the role of Eddie Ginley. Ginley is a bingo-caller and occasional club comedian who dreams of being a private eye of the kind he knows from films and pulp novels. Having put an advertisement in a local newspaper (the Liverpool Echo) as a birthday present to himself, Ginley is suddenly contacted for what appears to be an actual piece of detective work... The film has many comic moments as it switches between detective novel and affectionate spoof. It has some shots of Liverpool buildings that have long since been demolished, including the employment exchange on Leece Street. Gumshoe was the first of two films with original music scores by Andrew Lloyd Webber (the other was The Odessa File, in 1974). Some of the music was re-used in Lloyd Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard (1993). Several scenes in the London part of the narrative take place in and around Paul Brunton's famous occult bookstore, The Atlantis Bookshop.

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