THE HORSE'S MOUTH
UK, 1958, 96 minutes, Colour.
Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Michael Morgan, Robert Coote, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger.
Directed by Ronald Neame.
The Horse's Mouth is a cinema tour-de-force for Alec Guinness who adapted the film from Joyce Carey's novel, wrote the screenplay and acted the main role. He achieves considerable success with all three. Gulley Jimson, the hero of Joyce's novel, 1s a strange character, a mixture of English music hall comedy and patter, tramp and sensitive artist in the tradition of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Blake. Alec Guinness, somehow or other, makes him a figure of fun as well as a profoundly moving person. He walks over other people and yet tries to like and love them. He aims at producing masterpieces but feels that he must destroy some of them himself. The film is really a glorification of the spirit of Gulley Jimson.
One of the difficulties of adapting this novel for the screen is that it is the third in a trilogy. The first novel, "Herself Surprised", has as its main character Sarah, with Gulley in a supporting role. The next novel, "To Be a Pilgrim", centres on Hickson. Thus the reader of "The Horse's Mouth" should know both Sarah and Hickson well, should be acquainted with Gulley and be in a position to get to understand him, The moviegoer is not in this fortunate position. Guinness fills in the background a little, just enough to help us to appreciate the characters in this film and lets it go at that. This is probably the best method for this film.
Everybody acknowledges that Guinness is a master-actor. One has only to think of Oliver Twist, The Man 1n the White Suit, Father Brown and The Prisoner. Gulley Jimson contrasts with the officer of The Bridge on the River Kwai. The easy-going officer of Tunes of Glory contrasts with this again and with Feisal in Lawrence Of Arabia and his Charles I in Cromwell.
The English supporting cast is excellent and some striking paintings have been provided. One of the joys of the film 1s the adaptation of Prokoffiev's music, especially the theme for Gulley's walk.
1. What did the title mean (when was it used in the film)?
2. The film is a humorous study of Gulley Jimson, man and artist. What kind of man was Gulley? Do you think you would like him if you knew him in real life? Would you be as patient with him as Nosey was? Would you be as hard as Cokey usually was? Why couldn’t he help himself?
3. Did the portrayal of Gulley Jimson help you to understand an artist's temperament and mind (his remarks to Nosey, his work, talk about colour, his philosophy of a world of colour, his sizing up of Walls to paint)? Did you notice the signature music each time he saw a suitable wall?
4. Did you like Gulley Jimson's paintings - Adam and Eve, Sarah in the bath, the tiger (and his quoting from Blake's poem), the feet and the raising of Lazarus, the final mural?
5. Why did Gulley keep ringing Hickson? (Did you enjoy his calls?) Why did Hickson support Gulley?
6. How did Alec Guinness’s acting make Gulley Jims on memorable - the rasping voice, the unshaven face, the roving eyes, the characteristic shuffle (and the musical theme for this shuffling trot), his rhetoric, his pinching and patting the women?
7. Why did he get on well with Cokey? Why did she try to help him? Was it just to get back her money? What kind of woman was she really?
8. Can you imagine Gulley married to Sarah Munday? Why do you think they broke up? What kind of woman was she?
9. What did the sequence with Sir Robert and Lady Florence reveal about Gulley end his manner with people, e,g. Lady Flo's paintings?
10. Could you excuse Gulley's irresponsibility in painting all the ornaments in the flat, painting the wall and letting the sculptor in?
11. Why was he dissatisfied with, the painting in the flat?
12. Why did Sarah put it over Gulley about the painting? Did he really want to hurt her when he attacked her?
13. What did his organising of the painting of the Wall show about him? What did the clash with the Borough secretary and the demolishers symbolise for him? Why did he demolish the wall himself?
14. The end showed that he would keep on going, that life had to be lived and the creative urge fulfilled. The finale and music were triumphant - to the greater glory of Gulley Jimson sailing down the Thames. Why was this? Was it appropriate for the end of the film?
