The Horse’s Mouth ** (1958, Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renée Houston) – Classic Movie Review 7997

Alec Guinness both plays the dedicated non-conformist London artist hero Gulley Jimson seeking his artistic ideal and writes the screenplay of director Ronald Neame’s lifeless, disappointing 1958 British film of Joyce Cary’s 1944 novel The Horse’s Mouth.

As star actor, Guinness is fine – he won Best Actor award at the 1958 Venice Film Festival – and, as writer, he is OK too: he was also nominated for a 1959 Oscar as writer for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, as well as for Best British Screenplay at the 1960 Baftas.

But director Neame’s misguided attempt to turn an intriguing portrait of an artist into a fluffy, eccentric comedy fails because his film is simply not funny enough. However, appropriately, the movie looks good: John Bratby painted the expressionistic paintings and Arthur Ibbetson photographs the film in Technicolor.

Heading a strong support cast, Kay Walsh and Renée Houston are good value as the bartender and as Gulley’s ex-wife.

Also in the cast are Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Arthur Macrae, Veronica Turleigh, Reginald Beckwith, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Richard Caldicott, Gillian Vaughan, Clive Revill, Peter Bull, Fred Griffiths, May Hallatt, Joan Hickson, Jeremy Judge, John Kidd, Richard Leech and Elton Ollivierre.

It opened in the UK with a Royal Command Performance.

Though Guinness’s screenplay generally follows the book, it focuses more on Jimson’s character and the life of an artist, dumps social and political themes, and changes the book’s downer ending.

The cast are Alec Guinness as Gulley Jimson, Kay Walsh as Miss D Coker, Renée Houston as Sara Monday, Mike Morgan as Nosey, Robert Coote as Sir William Beeder, Arthur Macrae as A W Alabaster, Veronica Turleigh as Lady Beeder, Michael Gough as Abel, Reginald Beckwith as Captain Jones, Ernest Thesiger as Hickson, Gillian Vaughan as Lollie, Richard Caldicott, Clive Revill, Peter Bull, Fred Griffiths, May Hallatt, Joan Hickson, Jeremy Judge, John Kidd, Richard Leech and Elton Ollivierre.

Mike Morgan, as Nosey, got sick with meningitis and died before filming finished, and many of his lines are dubbed by another actor.

Neame visited author Joyce Cary, who asked that his son Tristram, who had scored Guinness’s The Ladykillers, should write the score. Neame told Tristram Cary that he wanted ‘something jaunty and cocky’ like Sergei Prokoviev’s Lieutenant Kijé. The score is arranged by Kenneth V Jones and conducted by Muir Mathieson.

Tristram Cary, OAM (14 May 1925 – 24 April 2008).

John Bratby RA (19 July 1928 – 20 July 1992) was a member of the English provincial realist artist group known as the kitchen sink school. Guinness observed Bratby at work in his home studio to prepare for his role.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7997

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