Customer Reviews

The Horse's Mouth (The Criterion Collection)

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If a film buff askes you to name a classic film you realy like you can do no worse than to answer "The Horse's Mouth". Try to suppress a smile as the buff looks at first puzzled and then cautiously admits that they have never heard of let alone seen that movie so can it be that good?

Well actually yes it is explain to them then casually mention that it is the only film that Alec Guinness ever wrote a screenplay for and that he gained an Academy Award nomination for his trouble and that in his "Parkinson" interview in 1977 he almost (but not quite) admitted that it was his favourite film in his long career.

Then you can go on to tell that it is one of the few films from the 1950's that shows London in colour and the music adapted from Sergei Prokofieff's "Lieutenant Kije" gives the film a touch of class and a unique sense of style not to be found in other films of the period.

You may then mention that the acting is superb; as well as Guinness' faultless study of an obsessive and slightly desturbed artist Gulley Jimson. Kay Walsh(Mrs. David Lean)adds humour and pathos as Miss Coker the comugenly woman who none the less has a soft spot for Jimson and music hall turn Renee Houston as Sara Munday (Gulley's ex-wife) adds a bit of bawdy fun to the proceedings. Young actor Mike Morgan gives an energetic perfomance all the more sad because he died before the film's release.

As the discussion continues you may point out that there are a few technical problems; the original three strip Technicolour camaras were so heavy, with their sound blimps, that the camera doesn't move that much during dialoge shots but that makes the actors move more especially when Gulley and Coker are escaping from the police . Also because the film was assembled onto one roll of negative (a common practice in British films until the 1960's )the dissolves are a bit klunky. But any discerning viewer will forgive such imperfections like the bullet holes in a Jimson painting.

You can then round off your discourse by stating that the end of the film, when Jimson sets sail in his wreck of a boat (a metaphor for his own body?), to find something new to paint is sublime.

Then if the film buff is still a bit bemused you can tell them that there is an excellent DVD of the film including an interview with director Ronald Neame and a D.A. Pennebacker Short that accompanied the film on it's original release from Criterion and that no serious DVD collection should be with out it and that comes, as they say, from the horse's mouth.

I recently purchased this film from Amazon as well as "The Alec Guinness Collection" which includes Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) plus four others: The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Captain's Paradise (1953), and The Ladykillers (1955). Frankly, I was amazed how well each of the six films has held up since I first saw it.

This film is based on a novel by Joyce Cary, The Horse's Mouth. Guinness wrote the screenplay which was nominated for an Academy Award. The director was Ronald Neame who also produced it. Special credit should also be given to the cinematographer, Arthur Ibbetson, who brilliantly captures the beauty of London while sustaining the viewer's focus on both the splendor and squalor of Gulley Jimson's passions. For me, Guinness' portrayal of that aging and impoverished but obsessed painter gives a whole new meaning to the word "eccentric." As in the novel, the spirit of William Blake is very evident. Art is Jimson's religion for which he is not only willing but eager to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary, his or another's. There are both lambs and tigers in Blake's world and, indeed, in Jimson's world. As portrayed by Guinness, he manifests the dominant characteristics of both lion and lamb in his own personality and behavior.

Members of the supporting cast are outstanding, notably Mike Morgan (Nosey) and Kay Walsh (Coker) who remain devoted to Jimson throughout his constant use and abuse of them. I hasten to add that, after recently watching this bittersweet film again, I found its several comic moments hilarious. The best of Guinness' comic films always include special "touches" which enrich their appeal. Whether it was his idea or Neame's (or theirs together), clever use is made of Sergei Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kije" suite throughout the film. I am unable to explain why so few people who claim to be "film buffs" know about this classic...nor why even fewer people have seen it.

First off, this isn't a review--it's a reminiscence. I saw this film in the '60s in Berkeley, and I loved it then partly because it spoke to me of what I believed were the issues of the day--freedom (artistic and otherwise) and the power of the individual. I am now buying the video so that I can at long last have a joyous reunion with the unforgettable characters--the artist's dishevelled, indignant and loyal girlfriend; his equally dishevelled, adoring and unquestioning young admirer, and the artist himself, the outrageous Gully Jimson (Guinness). I still see his raffish little boat on the Thames, chugging along to the regal strains of Prokofiev, just as the often obnoxious and stubborn Jimson is dignified by the strength of his commitment to art and self. (This film was based on the novel by Joyce Cary)

I guess I missed a chance to buy this wonderful movie, but with the passing of the great Sir Alec, maybe it will be reissued. I watched this on a foreign flick channel in Milwaukee when I was in 7th or 8th grade--every night for 5 nights! I do believe the effects were permanent and profound-- from my middle class reality I saw another way of looking at the world that was closer to mine than my classmates and family. I learned the music, played it for my orchestra teacher who identified it and became a Prokofiev devotee to boot! Read the book in HS. See It! The public participation mural part is great!

I saw this film when it first came out, and I've seen it about 20 times since, and it never wears thin. Other reviewers have covered the details, and I'll not repeat them. Guiness has made a character quite different from Cary's original, and in many ways, more interesting. For me, this is one of the great films, something not often said of a small comedy. It illuminates as much of the human spirit as "Seven Samurai" or "Citizen Kane". It's as near perfect as one could wish for - Guiness is completely mature and at the height of his acting and writing powers, and the supporting cast is perfect. I don't give such praise casually - this IS a great film, and worth your time and money.

"The Horse's Mouth" is one of those British comedies that will bring a smile to your face if you already love those kind of movies and television shows, and is an indispensible DVD for fans of the great Alec Guinness. He plays Gulley Jimson (who the novel's author, Joyce Cary, based on his friend the poet Dylan Thomas.) Jimson is a broken-down, scabrous old reprobate of an artist, who is also recognized by those in the know as a genius. Dressed in shabby old clothes, Guinness scowls, sneers, growls in an unforgettable voice, insults everyone, and schemes and plots his next big painting. He is supported by Nosy, a young would-be artist, and Coker, a tough old barmaid who likes Jimson in spite of herself. Jimson worms his way into the apartment of an upper-crust couple to paint his mural on their wall "The Resurrection of Lazarus", with hilariously catastrophic results. While fleeing from the police, Jimson discovers a bare wall in an old church scheduled for demolition, and Tom Sawyer-like, recruits an army of apprentices to paint his next big mural, "The Last Judgement."

Guinness wrote the screenplay, and it has been criticized by some for softening the novel, especially the ending. But this movie is a perfectly reasonable interpretation that perhaps reflects Guinness' religious faith (check out the titles of the paintings, Coker's prayer, and Jimson's last line in the film.) Some have described Gulley as a sort of proto-hippie, but there is nothing soft, sentimental, or utopian about him. He is a tough-minded, self-critical anarchist whose faith in another world besides this one, "the world of color", carries him through his troubles. Jimson stands for the incorrigible individual against the small-minded materialistic elites that hate and fear real beauty because they have a hard time understanding it. This is a wonderful movie that deserves its high reputation and inclusion in the Criterion Collection of DVD's.

Gulley Jimson is an unappreciated painter, loopily passionate about his art, and defiantly inured to the rigors of poverty & the fear of giving offense.

"The Horse's Mouth" wears its 45 years effortlessly. We are fortunate that Alec Guinness poured his unique talents into imagining the genius of this comic character, getting it down as a screenplay, and rendering so inspired a performance. The result defies imitation. Intelligent viewers will find the comedy as delightfully quick as it must have been when it was first shown.

The Criterion Collection DVD has preserved the Technicolor gorgeously. We are spared the customary tedium of "DVD filler" but given a wonderful short interview with director Ronald Neame.

This is a well-made video; good sound, good clarity, good color. The comedy, should be required viewing for every aspiring fine arts painter. It portrays "the artist" as he is measured through the supporting cast; his affluent benefactor, his ex-wife, the adoring teen-aged-would-be artist, an antagonist sculptor, a market-minded Tate Gallery, and more, all making up a host of foils for Guiness the drunk, poetry quoting, oil painter of rawhide nudes. The dialogue gets on a fast track--I don't want to give away the plot, but "What does this review say to you?"

I love this film and saw it when it first appeared in the 1950's. The DVD version (Criterion) is missing an important segment where the camera repeatedly visits the sculpture as it is chiseled away, finally down to a small scrap of marble.
The segment is important, not only for the immensity of its comedy. But also as a unique comment on the madness of the artists.

Rarely seen and not widely known by the new generation of videophiles, "THE HORSE'S MOUTH" is a recent and most welcome arrival on DVD.

The late, great Alec Guinness was at the peak of his considerable powers when he wrote and starred in this wondrous screen adaptation of Joyce Carey's novel about the eccentric, driven, eremitic painter Gulley Jimson. Widely acclaimed as one of cinema's greatest comic characters, Guinness' scruffy, gravelly-voiced and ill-behaved Jimson is also an unusually perceptive examination of the process of artistic creation and the fine line between the hallucinations of a madman and the inner visions of a genius. Or, in Jimson's case, perhaps there is no dividng line at all. Jimson lets nothing stand in his way as he searches for the perfect canvas. In this case, he needs a giant wall-size space for an epic mural of feet and toes in all their gnarly glory. And when Jimson explains his vision, citing the worn, torn lizard skinned feet of Job, it makes sense. And we fearfully root for him when he nearly destroys a stranger's luxury apartment to realize his dream. Unsaid is the notion that because Jimson is a creator, he is most like God and ordinary rules do not apply.

Director Ronald Neame, in a 2001 interview (an extra on the disc), recalls that Carey's novel was originally brought to him by actor Claude Rains, but Neame thought it unfilmable. When Guinness later suggested the same title to Neame as a project for himself, Neame said the same thing and Guinness replied, "Ronnie, you're quite wrong," and went off and wrote the screenplay, expanding the novel's ending.

Greatly enhancing Jimson's mindset is the memorable music adapted from Prokfiev. The original art seen in the film is by John Bratby, a leading proponent of UK's "provincial realism" school. The lush digital transfer was supervised by Neame himself. Also Included on the disc are vintage trailers and D. A. Pennebaker's "Daylight Express," the Duke Ellington scored short that played prior to "The Horse's Mouth" in its theatrical run.

This is a comic masterpiece that belongs on the shelf with "Some Like It Hot" and "Withnail & I." Highest recommendation.