The Horse's Mouth is a 1958 British film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh and Renée Houston.

Eccentric painter Gulley Jimson is released from a one-month jail sentence for telephone harassment of his sponsor, Mr. Hickson.

An old artistic rival, Abel, intrudes on Jimson to bring in a large block of marble to fulfil a sculpture commission for British Rail.

After the demolition crew warns everyone to stand back, Jimson suddenly drives a bulldozer through the wall, feeling it necessary to destroy the work before anyone else did.

The expressionistic paintings featured in the film are actually the work of John Bratby, a member of the English provincial realist artist group known as the kitchen sink school.

Neame conveyed to Tristram Cary that he wanted "something jaunty and cocky" in the manner of Sergei Prokoviev's Lieutenant Kijé.

"[6] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Joyce Cary's novel, with its great central character, its comedy, passion and overflowing vitality, could not easily be confined; within conventional screen limits.

Guinness makes a brilliantly clever and consistent character study out of Gulley Jimson – rasping voice, shuffling little run, flashes of dignity and pathos alternating with the slapstick impudence.

But several minor characters (the Beeders, the retired sailor who guards the houseboat) are taken too far towards caricature; and too many of Gulley's adventures have been translated into a sort of Ealing-style anarchism.

Sometimes funny in their own right, though rather slackly directed by Ronald Neame, these scenes further weaken emphasis on the all-important fact that Gulley's story is that of creative force rather than lovable eccentricity.

"[7] Scott Weinberg of the Apollo Guide described Guinness' performance as "a devilishly enjoyable character study" that "ranges from 'mildly dishevelled' to 'tragically exhausted'" and also praised Neame's direction.