The Horse's Mouth

Uneasy adaptation of Joyce Cary's marvellous novel (itself an integral part of a trilogy) about the anti-social nature of genius. Guinness builds a clever, painstakingly detailed character study as the scruffily disreputable Gulley Jimson, an ageing artist prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that he can go on setting down his vision in paint. But despite using John Bratby paintings to represent that vision, the film itself is more concerned with the artist's eccentricities than with his creativity. Flatly directed, loosely scripted, it emerges as little more than a lightweight slice of Ealing-style whimsy.