Gulley Jimson (Alec Guinness) is an eccentric artist that doesn’t play well with others. He struggles to find the allure of conversation with strangers, and he’s so disconnected from the rest of the world that he has found himself without any friends. While Gulley has struggled through a good portion of his life, he now searches for the perfect canvas, and he refuses to let anyone or anything come between him and his life-long journey. The Horse's Mouth depicts Gulley on said journey, determined to finally find his way.
I’m one of those people that only knows Alec Guinness from the Star Wars films as Obi-Wan Kenobi (interestingly I sit here, writing this review on May 25, 2022–just two days before the premier of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series). I know that he was incredibly talented, and what I’ve seen of him in those science fiction films is enough to know that Guinness is more than capable of filling any role. For the first time in my thirty-one years I have seen Guinness in what might be considered a more normal role. He plays an artist living in England and not a jedi master hiding on the desert planet of Tatooine. As expected, he fits this role quite well–and his ability to manipulate his voice over and over again allowed me to separate the former and the latter. Furthermore, he manages to create legitimate comedy throughout The Horse’s Mouth, essentially working as the glue that keeps this entire production together.
Let me be clear, the following is not to say that The Horse’s Mouth is a poorly done film–it’s wonderful actually. However, I believe that without Guinness as the film’s lead, it wouldn’t have been able to land the comedic aspects on viewers as Writers Guinness and Joyce Cary or Director Ronald Neame intended it to.
The comedy present throughout The Horse’s Mouth reminds me a lot of what Charles Chaplin’s films brought to the table. The comedy isn’t the same in the sense that it’s slapstick and hands on, but rather that there’s a darkness that exists in it. Jokes about death, homelessness, and the troublesome life of Gulley are at the core of The Horse’s Mouth, and while these topics are dark and sometimes difficult to swallow, the delivery by everyone present in the film is beautiful, and it allows those darker subjects to work well in the form of comedy.
There’s no doubt that beneath the thick layer of comedy exists a story meant to touch the hearts of everyone watching. Gulley Jimson is incredibly relatable–he’s jaded and he’s sort of over the nonsense present in the world. He’s a physical representation of what most of us are feeling on the inside; we want to be left alone, we want to do our own thing, and we want to exist in a place where the hardships of this harrowing world don’t have a hold on us. Gulley is willing to express this to his peers and to anyone else who gets in his way throughout the course of The Horse’s Mouth. While this is a difficult way to live, it’s almost refreshing to see someone willing to speak the truth, willing to express exactly how they feel about this often daunting world. He’s an accurate representation of how people feel in 2022, and considering this film was released in 1958, it’s incredible how ahead of its time the film was and how well the subject matter has held up.
There are times when the music doesn’t match the scene. Somewhere around the thirty-minute mark, as Gulley strolls down the street, the music is incredibly fast paced, and does not match the tone of what is occurring. I struggled with this aspect of the film, as things felt out of place or inconsistent. What typically remains an even-keeled film, a film that knows what it wants to be, shifts from time to time and feels a tad frumpy–this is the only issue I have in The Horse’s Mouth in its entirety.
The Horse’s Mouth is one of those films that feels adequately developed, not overdone or underdone by any means. The things essential to the narrative are well put together, but the extraneous details that exist throughout the film simply exist. There’s not a strong attention to detail present in The Horse’s Mouth (at least in regard to those minor, unimportant details), but enough that the important parts shine through and Guinness’ Gulley touches the hearts of viewers. His comedic prowess and his ability to take hold of the reality of the world in which we live and deliver a truly spectacular performance is one of a kind. He’s magnificent in his performance here, and while there are a number of aspects of the film that lend themselves to success, Guinness is the backbone of the film.
Directed by Ronald Neame.
Written by Joyce Cary & Alec Guinness.
Starring Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Arthur Macrae, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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