Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

blanche-2 Alec Guinness plays obsessed artist Gulley Jimson in "The Horse's Mouth," a 1958 film written by Guinness. Gulley is a grizzly-voiced, unkempt, grouchy artist who will paint his vision at all costs. We first see him being released from jail, and then, annoyed by a young man, Nosey (Mike Morgan), who wants to learn at his feet, he attempts to get back into prison.Since the prison doesn't want him, Gulley then returns to what got him into prison in the first place - harassing phone calls to a wealthy man, Hickson (Ernest Thesiger), who was given 18 canvasses by Gulley's ex-wife (Renee Houston) in payment of Gulley's debts to him. Gulley wants the canvasses back because he has a letter from another wealthy man who wants to buy one. But upon going to Hickson's house, Hickson's servant calls the police, and Gulley and his some time friend Dee (Kay Walsh) to whom he owes money have to escape via the kitchen and hijack a cab.Gulley goes to the elegant apartment of the couple (Robert Coote and Veronica Turleigh) who want to buy his painting - a small one, it turns out, for their summer home -- and what does he see but an enormous blank wall. Yes, he decides, that is what I must have for my painting of the raising of Lazurus. The couple leave for Jamaica, and Gulley stays on, commandeering a key from the superintendent. He then starts selling their things in order to buy supplies. The laugh out loud scenes come here, when Michael Gough, a sculptor, arrives and moves in his block of material. Absolutely hilarious.There is a serious undertone to all of this - Gulley Jimson is a man who has given up everything and lives on a houseboat in order to paint. His ideas are unlimited, and throughout the film, he is, in a sense, framing his next canvas."The Horse's Mouth" could be made today, it's just as fresh as it was in 1958. Guinness is sheer perfection as Gulley - nasty, contemptuous of commercialism, completely zeroed in on his vision and his art while he trashes the world around him. And for all that, a serious artist with something to say. The paintings by John Bratby are quirky and look as if someone like Gulley could have done them.It's so sad that the young man who played Nosey died of meningitis during the filming - he was delightful, as is the rest of the cast. Ronald Neame's directing is first-rate.This film is a total triumph.

Bill Slocum Alec Guinness not only stars in what amounts to a one-man show as aging, struggling London painter Gulley Jimson, he also wrote the script. Funny he got an Oscar nomination for the writing, and not for the acting.As Jimson, Guinness is a memorably growly, seedy type, testament to the artistic impulse of man running afoul of polite society. Even his nasty Fagin from "Oliver Twist" was affable company; Jimson tells off his young admirer Nosey (Mike Morgan) with a convincingly hoarse "Go do something sensible, like shooting yourself." It's all for laughs, of course, except when "The Horse's Mouth" gets mildly serious, mostly when Jimson holds forth on his vision of art."Half a minute of revelation's worth a million years of know-nothing," he tells his companion Coker (Kay Walsh)."Who lives a million years?" is her sharp reply."A million people every 12 months.""A Horse's Mouth" isn't always so smart. Walsh plays her part too shrill, Morgan his too moony, and the artist who provided Jimson's paintings, John Bratby, uses too much red. After establishing Jimson, Guinness's script doesn't do much with him. He paints some walls, gets into some trouble, and sails away, leaving others to bear witness to his "genius".What I like most about this film, other than Guinness's fine acting and occasional scenes here and there that feature his character to good effect, is the vivid picture you get of London circa the late 1950s, double-decker buses with hoardings for Gordon's Gin and Ty-Phoo Tea on their sides. Also, director Ronald Neame finds interesting angles to frame the film from in order to give the on-screen action (rarely painting itself, but frequently static conversation shots) a bit of vitality, and often outside with lively streetscape backdrops.This is like a David Lean movie once removed. Neame was Lean's cinematographer in his early days, Guinness was Lean's favorite actor, and Walsh was Lean's ex-wife. Even Anne V. Coates, later the Oscar-winning editor of "Lawrence Of Arabia", snipped this as well.She deserved her Oscar; not so Guinness his nomination here. As a comedy, "The Horse's Mouth" is a bit of a miss. A scene of Jimson ruining a rich couple's penthouse apartment is painfully unfunny, especially when a sculptor friend of Jimson (Michael Gough) arrives out of nowhere to add to the mess. Most of the other business in the movie, like a struggle between Jimson and his ex-wife for a portrait of her he needs for painting money, feels like chopped-down scenes from Cary's novel mined for easy laughs, at some expense to story.I didn't care much about Jimson by story's end, but I did enjoy his company, or rather that of Guinness playing Jimson, staring at a charwoman and fixated by her feet, "...old women's feet...thin, flat, long...clinging to the ground like reptiles". Like much else in regard to the movie, I'm at a loss to what it means, but I value the experience. That counts for something with art.

Allan_from_Australia This movie showcases the talents of a great actor and should be studied by acting students keen to learn how to adapt a character.Alec Guiness becomes this rather disreputable artist and gives him many saving qualities. Supported by a good cast and free to create one of his better though less known performances Guiness holds you spellbound Joyce Cary wrote the screenplay and the artist Gulley Jimson really comes to life using the talents of Alec Guiness ,Joyce Carey and the expert direction of Robert Neame who possibly had an easy time with this movie simply letting Carey and Guiness do what they do best. That is exercise their Godgiven talents to give the devolving public a Classic movie to remember with great affection.

grdndms The script by Sir Alec Guinness made this a most enjoyable funny well acted film.Kay Walsh is superb as Coker. I always found that Miss.Walsh was an excellent supportive actress and when with Sir Alec they made a special sparkle light up.The book was "flat" and yet Sir Alec persuaded his friend,the director of the film,that it could be made and had potential. How right he was. Ronald Neame said that he could not see a "film" coming out from the book,but once the script had been written by Sir Alec,he was enthusiastic.The scene with Miss.Walsh running away from the police is hilariously funny.I cannot recommend it too highly. One of my personal favourite Guinness film.R. Guinness