Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 06/04/2002
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 95 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
The Horse's Mouth is an acting and a writing
tour de force for
Alec Guinness, who authored the screenplay in addition to starring in the film.
Gulley Jimson (
Alec Guinness) is an aging artist with a reputation as a genius, though he lives an impoverished life.
Jimson has reached the point in his life where he no longer feels any need to moderate his irascible persona -- he has a taste for alcohol and a tendency toward boisterous spirits where the ladies are concerned -- in search of canvasses to paint and commissions that will allow him to live comfortably, and
Guinness lives the role to the hilt. Released from jail for some indiscretion, he immediately begins harassing his wealthiest patron,
Hickson (
Ernest Thesiger), for money. When that fails, he insinuates himself into the home of a would-be patron,
Sir William and
Lady Beeder (
Robert Coote,
Veronica Turleigh), and manages to destroy their home and that of their downstairs neighbor with a huge block of stone and some help from a sculptor friend (
Michael Gough). Courted by a potential buyer, he is desperate to retrieve one of his early works from his former wife, but even that prospect is closed off to him. Finally, with help from his young admirer,
Nosey (
Mike Morgan), his friend,
Coker (
Kay Walsh), and some art students eager to work with the legendary
Gulley Jimson, he begins painting his largest canvas of all. The painting is completed and promptly destroyed.
Jimson finally takes off in his wreck of a houseboat for the open sea, eyeing the huge hulls of the passing ships as potential canvasses to paint. As he disappears up the river,
Coker looks on in panic and
Nosey calls after him, declaring his admiration for
Jimson and who he is and what his work means -- knowing for certain that he can't be heard.
~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
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