The Horse's Mouth - Criterion Collection

Starring:Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Arthur Macrae, Veronica Turleigh, Michael Gough, Reginald Beckwith, Ernest Thesiger, Gillian Vaughan, Mary Davies, Richard Caldicot, Elton Ollivierre, Fred Griffiths, Peter Bull, Richard Leech, Joan Hickson, John Kidd, Jeremy Judge
Director: Ronald Neame, D.A. Pennebaker
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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Alec Guinness was in the full bloom of his stardom when he suggested, scripted, and starred in this wonderfully odd 1958 adaptation of Joyce Cary's novel. As Gulley Jimson, a gravel-voiced, antisocial painter, whose artistic drive is as single-minded (and as self-absorbed) as a terrier's, Guinness sketches one of his carefully constructed marvels. The film has a bumpily episodic structure, but when it works, it really works: Gulley inhabiting (and mostly destroying) a penthouse apartment when the upper-crusty owners go on holiday for six weeks, or marshaling an army of apprentices to create a masterpiece on a giant wall in a condemned building. Departing from the novel, Guinness concocted the movie's madcap ending, which is guaranteed to bring a smile. Adding verve is the music, adapted from Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé, which fits Gulley like the paint under his dirty nails. The artworks, vivid and thick, are by John Bratby. --Robert Horton

Description

In Ronald Neame's film of Joyce Cary's classic novel, Alec Guinness transforms himself into one of cinema's most indelible comic figures: the lovably scruffy painter Gulley Jimson. As the ill-behaved Jimson searches for a perfect canvas, he determines to let nothing come between himself and the realization of his exalted vision. A perceptive examination of the struggle of artistic creation, The Horse's Mouth is also director Neame's comic masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

Guiness brews another stout character.......2007-05-15

Gully Jimson's over-the-top artistic obsession becomes endearing and disturbing in this performance by Alec Guiness, himself a masterful portrayer of larger-than-life characters. He paints Joyce Cary's artist with similarly grotesque colors of personality and behavior as in the vivid palette and bizarre imagery of Jimson's wall-size murals, so adeptly painted by the film's artists themselves. Jimson's art both destroys conventional decency and is destroyed by civil convention. Guiness himself wins another star in this crowning achievement of acting genius.

The Incorrigible Individual: Gulley Jimson.......2006-07-08

"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.

All but the slapstick.......2006-04-28

I love this movie just as I remember liking the book as a child. Guinness is wonderful, as is everyone. Rather than just appear in the know and echo that Guinness wrote the screenplay I would like to say that it is brilliant and subtle and bawdy by turns and that I had no idea he was so gifted. Also rather than just seem erudite I would like to say that the Prokofiev background was a good idea gone wrong. It was exciting for a while, but it got old. There is more to that suite than the snippet they eternally played. And (my erudition) the suite was derived from the score to a movie. I liked the human element the best. I did not care for (I'd seen the movie before and almost didn't buy it for this reason) the marble through the floor or the fate of the last wall painted. I liked the dialogue and the characterizations. It is a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it to everyone. The ending was not from the novel (as someone pointed out, I'd of course forgotten that), and just knowing that made me dislike it. I don't know why the discovery should have had that effect on me. I accepted the ending to begin with. Finally, and by the by, when I was in the military I knew a Gulley Jimson. He dabbled in art and knew no bounds. However, he had no talent, was selfish beyond belief (and Gulley?) and was a child abuser (of the mean variety, not sexual), his own daughter. So much for him. Guinness was much more colorful (like the movie) and loveable. A self-willed little grouch, but loveable.

Alec Guinness does comedy (again).......2004-10-05

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

British movie star Alec Guinness (best known fr his role of Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars eps. 4-6) stars in this fine comedy.

A painter, Gulley Jimson, just released from prison is looking for work. His attempts to find a place to paint a new mural result in comical misadventures with slapstick humor. He finds a place to paint his mural but does not realize that it is scheduled for demolition until it's too late.

This film has great acting by Alec Guinness in one of his best known comedic roles.

The Criterion Dollection DVD has some fine special features for this director-aproved edition.

There is an interview with director Ronald Neame and a theatrical trailer.

In addition, there is a short documentary by D.A. Pennebaker titled "Daybreak Express" about a now-gone NYC railroad line. This film was shown with "Horse's Mouth" during its New York City theatrical run. The film includes an introduction by Pennebaker.

Fans of 1950's British comedy will like this.

Fantastic Film, Exemplary DVD.......2003-09-21

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.

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