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.