GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Sergeant_Tibbs The Horse's Mouth first intrigued me as I love films about the arts and the art of filmmaking itself. Sometimes it can be rather self-indulgent but sometimes it can be so profoundly reflective that it becomes, almost ironically, the finest form of art. Although vastly different in style, The Horse's Mouth's premise is much like the premise of my second favourite film of all- time - Synecdoche, New York, which, released 50 years later, definitely has no connection past this coincidence. As you can imagine, since the idea of an artist struggling to find the perfect vision is why I consider Synecdoche to be one of the greatest films of all-time, those expectations rolled onto Mouth. But as I quickly found out from the first few minutes, The Horse's Mouth is instead a delightful comedy. Instead of being about trying to find a vision, the art itself is secondary and it's a pure character study paying close attention to the life of an artist.Despite a cartoonish gruff voice, Alec Guinness is the highlight. His apathy and self- deprecation make him wonderful to watch, particularly as he's very passive through the first act of the film, dragged along the narrative just like us. The writer as well as the star, Guinness clearly knows the character more than anyone, and it truly shows as he outshines his supporting cast to a severe degree. As someone who wants to be an artist myself (through writing and director films), his personal triumphs and failures find a way to take an exceptionally emotional toll. His fleeting inspirations are enlightening and when he finds himself unsatisfied it's utterly disheartening to know that someone as insightful as him can be wrong. The film has a wonderful sense of humour though and it certainly keeps the film very entertaining. However, it does suffer from that awkward transition of British Cinema in the 1950s between coming off too theatrical and whimsical and feeling truly cinematic in a Powell & Pressburger style. As it's directed by a cinematographer, it's really well shot which truly brings out the colour and the art. 8/10

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.

bkoganbing A year after winning the Oscar for Best Actor in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Alec Guinness was back to doing comedy, but with a lot bigger budgets than he was used to. His classic parts in Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lavendar Hill Mob were done without color for instance, which was a much bigger premium for films in the United Kingdom.Guinness has not played such a disreputable character as Cully Jimson since playing Fagin in Oliver Twist. Yet even as he's fleecing all around him including his girl friend Kay Walsh and devoted acolyte Mike Morgan, he still retains that likability. You do end up rooting for him even as he pulls some outrageous scams.Kay Walsh who as David Lean's ex-wife was friends with Guinness and his wife Merula. Lean of course was responsible for Guinness's breakout roles in Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Guinness got her cast in the role of his long suffering girlfriend and owner of a pub.Sadly young Mike Morgan died right before shooting ended on The Horse's Mouth. Guinness had worked with him previously on Morgan's only other film credit, Barnacle Bill. He gives a nice winsome performance as the young man who just wants to bask in the glow of Guinness's talent and glosses over all the chicanery.I don't think The Horse's Mouth is as good as Kind Hearts and Coronets or The Lavendar Hill Mob. Still Guinness obviously saw the film as a labor of love and the results do show.

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.