The Horse's Mouth

In one of his most delightful comic roles, Sir Alec Guinness shines as the raspy-voiced, ill-mannered, foot-fetishistic, indigent-but-serious artist Gulley Jimson (a character loosely based on Dylan Thomas), whose overcome-any-obstacle quest for the perfect canvas makes for knee-slapping whimsy in Ronald Neame's 1958 film of Joyce Cary's novel. Written for the screen by Guinness himself, The Horse's Mouth follows Jimson's hell-bent odyssey to create a masterwork (which he sees as "a kind of colored music in the mind"): a bizarre triptych (a major theme of which appears to be…feet), begun in his houseboat, continued in an apartment owned by unsuspecting patrons of the arts gone on holiday, and finally encompassing a giant church wall scheduled for destruction. Although poor unfortunates do enter Jimson's orbit, including a wannabe student whom Jimson is forever ditching, and a barmaid nicknamed Cokey (she counts her blessings thus: "I got both legs the same length and I don't squint") who semi-puts-up-with the artist's antics, Jimson remains hilariously single-minded in his self-appointed task--a veritable pit bull on the pant leg of art. Sporting a characteristically pristine transfer and solid sound (the soundtrack features variations on a winsomely integral piece of music by Prokofiev), the DVD also includes an illuminating 18-minute interview with Neame, a 16-page booklet with an essay by Bruce Eder, and D.A. Pennebaker's beautiful impressionistic documentary short Daybreak Express. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)