154 The Horse's Mouth

[Martha]

The Horse's Mouth



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.

Special Features

• New widescreen digital transfer supervised by Ronald Neame and enhanced for 16x9 televisions
• Video interview with director Ronald Neame
• D.A. Pennebaker's short documentary film Daybreak Express, which opened the original New York theatrical run of The Horse's Mouth, plus a video introduction by Pennebaker
• Original theatrical trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
• Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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[zedz]

Saw this recently. The film seems a little like it's the Collection's stand-in for some missing (and superior) Ealing film, but it's worth seeing for Alec Guinness' extremely eccentric performance.

The real gem on this disc, though, is Pennebaker's glorious Daybreak Express: a stunning (and stunningly preserved) near-abstract music video accompanying Ellington's brilliantly onomatopoeic single. One of the all-time-great train films, and Pennebaker's intro is terrific.

[HerrSchreck]

I actually adored this film, and agree it's an absolute comic masterpiece. It takes a minute or two for the film to shake of it's touch of early hoariness-- at first it doesn't have the slightest idea what its doing as it looks to break comic convention and comes off as a failed Disney comedy-- but once it settles in.. it's one of the most unique pieces of Brit comedy ever made. Moving, pointed at times in its' commentary, deeply genuine, scored perfectly.. and of course featuring one of the finest performances by the always sublime Guinness.

Kind of LADYKILLERS with a big sincere heart, and an urge to explore the culture of aesthetics in a genuine fashion. Made with a lot of love on all fronts. True there is a full dose of naivette, and there's not a hint of stylization on the visual front (though, as the interview w Neame reveals this was not only deliberate but a kind of ironclad rule for him, as in Wilder, i e "no fancy schmancy shots"), but the film is magical entertainment.

The kind of film that would be completely ruined today by today's crop of big name actors hamming and mugging the shit out of Gully, and making him more Hip than he's supposed to be.

Ditto w zedz on DAYBREAK of course, which I saw in the cinema befre I knew what it was.

[dr. calamari]

I just got this one recently, after hearing about it for years...it's really a great underappreciated film. Guinness's performance as Gulley Jimson is miraculous, easily as memorable as his Fagin in Oliver Twist. I was pleasantly surprised at the comedic turn by Michael Gough, who I'd only seen previously in Hammer films (and the Batman films, of course).

Visually the film is almost shot like a documentary, but Criterion's DVD is pretty good, the colors hold up well and there isn't a lot of damage to the print.

[HerrSchreck]

I'm surprised at the lack of love (or visible props) for this film.

[skuhn8]

Sadly, Neame's reputation seems to have suffered for lousy smearage like Hopscotch when he was there for so much of English Cinema's greatness, a body of work that he contributed to nobly with Tunes of Glory and Horse's Mouth. After buying the latter as a very reduced price blind buy I fell instantly in love, and just happened to find the source novel at a garage sale the following weekend. Excellent read; excellent film.

If Guinness hams it up just a little it is to remind us that we're supposed to be having fun here. Beautiful colors and great performances all around. The residue of his relationship with his ex is brilliant; suffering artist's distemper/temperment spilling into what must have been a passionate but volatile relationship where said passion is still lingering there under the surface--notice the spontaneous displays of mutual randiness (but Neame's talent is in giving us a subtle wink that there's a greater game being played here that both players are in on)--but cloaked in the neverending con that must have overwhelmed that previous passion and dooms Gulley's ambition: he carries that Dylan Thomasesque prediliction for exploit and con inherent in the artist's stereotype....but yet is no match for the natural talents of a jaded and fickle woman.

One of the most underrated spines in the collection...but I feel the same way about Tunes of Glory, only Horse's Mouth is great fun on a sad winter day.

[HerrSchreck]

Bingo, man.. every word of it. That's actually imho about the best possible condensation of the essence of this film and it's subtext. It captures the aspect of the absolute impossibility of Gully's character's ability to live and function in the world, while all the time Living In It (the greater the artist.. at least some.. the greater the twisting into this kind of knot). The man cannot function "normally" in a world of manners and structure, but this lack of functionality drives his brilliant work and calls him Back Into The World, owing to society's fetishizing the end results of his dysfunction-- his art. The film is often about that one pesky factor that comes between the patrons, art lovers, society in general, and the work they love: the man who created it.

It's a good old fashioned semi-lighthearted Portrait of the Artist.. and it walks a great fine line by seriously exploring the conundrum that befalls any deeeeply gifted person: the challenge of assimilating into (or being at least productive in) a world that doesn't neccessarily (in sum, at least) want the man, but wants the art. Some serious slapstick and well-wrought comedy is neccessary to keep one from dwelling too much on the painful undertones, which are plucked ever so perfectly lightly to keep this out of Branagh Seriousness Central.

[dr. calamari]

Getting this disc has made me a lot more appreciative of Alec Guinness as a character actor: currently I have Great Expectation, Oliver Twist (in the Great Adaptations Collection), and in non-Criterion titles The Man In The White Suit, The Ladykillers, and Lawrence Of Arabia. He was truly an amazing actor, and I look forward to finding more titles (like Our Man In Havana) for my own "Guinness Collection".

Think I'll pop in a disc and have a little Alec Guinness Film Festival, while drinking (what else?) a Guinness.

[HerrSchreck]

Any Guinnessian huh huh must of course have on file the excellent CC release of the subtlest, evilest, most devilishly creeping pitch black comedy KIND HEARTS & CORONETS. Notwithstanding the sublime film (one of the few scripts on a par w Renoirs REGLE, and probably the most satisfyingly hilarious manifestation of the UK underclass' undying fantasies of firing a single devastating T.O.W. missile straight into the balls of the landed gentry/bourgoisie), the performance of eight different parts by Guinness... the disc features a wonderful, rare interview with the actor (just after Star Wars.. note the great imitation of the mealymouthed voice of Lucus) that covers his whole career and goes on for a full seventy minutes.

Essential. Pictureboxing or no.

[Napoleon]

Again its Neame, and again its shockingly overlooked, but the man himself reckoned that Tunes of Glory was his best performance. I agree with him. Plus you get John Mills putting in one of his best performances and a delightfully sly turn by Dennis Price. IMO well worth watching, but then I'm biased because it is one of my most beloved films of all time.

[tryavna]

Not much to add really, except to say that I also love this film. As some other posters have indicated, this movie supplies a far more satisfying depiction of what an artist really does and how he behaves than many a more self-consciously serious movie. The use of Prokofiev is also very satisfying -- and probably more successful than most other "found" scores.

BTW, one more comical Guinness performance that deserves far more recognition than it currently receives is in The Card (a.k.a. The Promoter). And surprise, surprise: it was also directed by Neame. It was released by HVe on videotape, but it's also been released on R2 DVD by Network, I believe.

[swo17]

Query: I often see this image associated with Daybreak Express but cannot for the life of me find it in the film:



Is there an interesting story behind this? Does anyone care to tell it?

[carax09]

Pretty sure it's in there, swo. Pennebaker was shooting straight up from the moving EL, using the fish-eye lens, and then just to add another level of complexity/disorientation, he does a pirouette. At least that's how I remember it.

[swo17]

The section looking up at the sky starts at 3:00 in. I still can't see this particular shot.

[carax09]

Huh...I couldn't find it either. At one point it seems like we're approaching that building, and there's a cut. Could the promotional shot be a blow-up of a trim piece?