The Horse's Mouth

"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.


Alec Guinness does comedy (again)   October 4, 2004
Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
5 out of 12 found this review helpful

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.


A Must see for will-be artists or art lovers in general.   July 26, 2003
VMORGADO.com (New Jersey, USA)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful

I saw this movie with Spanish subtitles for the first time in 1964 as I turned ten years old. It was shown in a public channel in Puerto Rico. That was my first contact with Art in general.
As I watched the movie I realized that I identified strongly with the artist character played by Alec Guiness. Eveything seemed so cool about him.
I also loved the image of the sculptor wearing the long scarf and creating an abstract image as he worked inspired by a nude female model.
My whole life was tranformed at the end of this movie. I was only ten years old but I was decided to be myself like the artists in the movie. Sure enough I became an artist painter!
I travelled the world and lived in Paris for ten years.
After all those years I still trace the root of my artistic life to that wonderful and providential film.
It amazes me how powerful and influential
the art of Cinema could be.


The Incorrigible Individual: Gulley Jimson   July 8, 2006
R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

"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.


Alec Guinness is fantastic!   April 25, 2002
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Alec Guiness is fantastic as a sort of likeable but stubborn starving artist. It's a great character and probably my favorite performance from him(he's so much more abrasive than most of his other films). To be sought out at whatever cost(it seems to be not widely availabe right now)-find it, watch it! From the director of TUNES OF GLORY(also with Alec Gunness) and GAMBIT(soon to be remade by the Coen Brothers).