The Horse's Mouth

 

(1958)
Directed by Ronald Neame
Written by Alec Guinness from a novel by Joyce Carey
Starring  Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renée Houston, Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Veronica Turleigh. Michael Gough, Ernest Theisinger
IMDB Entry

Most people these days remember Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi or Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai and categorize him as one of the British dramatic actors. But Guinness was a gifted comic actor, too, and The Horse's Mouth shows this off.

Guiness plays Gully Jimson an artist with a strong ego and utter disregard for what others think about him. We first see him leaving prison for harassing one of his sponsors, Mr. Hickson (Ernest Theisinger). He is met by Nosey Barbon (Mike Morgan), who idolizes him and wants to be his protege. Jimson tells him to leave him alone. He continues his campaign against Hickson for buying his art from his ex-wife for a very low price. Lady Beeder (Veronica Turleigh) contacts him for a commission, and after seeing a blank wall, he insists on painting his masterpiece "The Raising of Lazarus" on it. When the Beeders leave for six weeks on vacation, he sneaks into his house and begins to paint. A second artist, Abel Bisson (Michael Gough) catches wind of the plan, and uses the house for a major sculpture, which leads to some slapstick disaster.

The movie is most a character study of Jimson. He is crude, egotistical, devious,and selfish. Speaking in a raspy voice, he tries to dominate anyone who gets in his way. Guinness is superb in the role, making the character likeable despite his flaws. Guiness also wrote the screenplay, and got an Oscar nomination for it.

The other characters are adjuncts to Guiness. Kay Walsh stands out as the woman who admires him despite all is flaws. Renée Houston is his ex-wife, who can  be just as devious as Jimson. Ernest "Dr. Pretorius" Thesiger and Michael Gough (Alfred in the Burton Batman) are familiar faces.

The music soundtrack was all taken from a single source, Prokofiev's "The Lieutenant Kijé Suite." It's up there as one of the most familiar pieces of classical music that most people can't name:  the "Troika" portion of it has become a popular Christmas piece, though it's only used once in the film.