The only possible bad thing that can be said about this is that Frank Finlay's accent is right out of the Northern Character box. Albert Finney's scouse accent is spot on, but Frank... I don't see how you can excuse that, especially after nearly ten years of the Beatles being everywhere, all the time. The same is true for a good many of the characters in Get Carter, very few of which sound to originate from Newcastle. In comparison to Get Carter, this is just as complicated, taking its time to reveal the key to the mystery, which I think (though I could have missed it) was the white leader of a black south African independence movement and his kidnapped daughter, so elements perhaps of Casablanca coming in there. It is fantastic to examine that typically 40s character, which seems so natural and realistic when played by Bogart, and take him out of that context into a very, very run down Liverpool, and see how he appears: somewhat psychotic in this instance. Eddie's wonderful lines come across as the product of someone just the wrong side of intense mania, especially as he gets deeper and deeper into the 'character' he finds himself playing. I wonder in fact if the relatively light and charming ending was the right way to go, and if he shouldn't have ended up committing some terrible crime because of his inability to stop being the detective, even when the mystery is solved. Interesting also to compare Finney's performance in this with another TCM favourite, Night must Fall, when the madness does overwhelm him.
Review of Gumshoe
