Eddie Ginley
Created by Neville Smith

The sleuth, the whole sleuth and nothing but the sleuth.

Stephen Frears' served notice with his directorial debut, a slice of BritWit about EDDIE GINLEY, a Liverpudlian down-but-not-quite-out bingo caller and P.I. wanna-be (Albert Finney) who decides to place an ad in the classified section, soliciting work as a private eye. It's all a lark, just a gag to celebrate his own birthday, but then someone actually hires him to solve a real case. Soon he's up to his stiff upper lip in heroin smugglers, African politics, gun-running and all sorts of fun stuff. The awkward transition of Eddie from a stumbling, mild-mannered bloke to a hard-boiled Yankee gumshoe is a joy to behold. Neville Smith wrote the screenplay, and then turned it into a novel.

Frears has gone on to direct some pretty memorable films, including The Hit, My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and The Grifters, based on the Jim Thompson novel.

FILM

• GUMSHOE....Buy this video
  (1972, Memorial Enterprises)
  88 minutes
  Screenplay by Neville Smith
  Directed by Stephen Frears
  Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
  Starring Albert Finney as EDDIE GINLEY
  Also starring Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour, Fulton Mackay, George Innes, George Silver, Billy Dean, Wendy Richard, Maureen Lipman, Neville Smith, Oscar James, Joe Kenyon, Bert King

NOVELISATION

• Gumshoe (1972)

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.