The Horse's Mouth (1958)

Alec Guinness: Gulley Jimson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Gulley Jimson : Go and do something sensible, like shooting yourself! But don't be an artist!

• Gulley Jimson : What are you doing?

  Miss D. Coker : I'm saying my prayers; I forgot them.

  Gulley Jimson : I thought you hated G-d.

  Miss D. Coker : Maybe I do.

  Gulley Jimson : Why do you pray then?

  Miss D. Coker : Well, he's our Father, isn't he?

  Gulley Jimson : That's a funny reason.

• Gulley Jimson : What are your feet like?

  Charwoman : Why?

  Gulley Jimson : If they're really old, trampled feet - as I suspect - I'd like to draw them.

  Charwoman : Draw your own feet!

  [she leaves] 

  Gulley Jimson : Old women's feet... thin, flat, long, clinging to the ground like reptiles.

• Gulley Jimson : Go away. Scram. Tie lead weights to your feet, fireworks in your hair, kiss your mother goodbye and jump in the river. I don't know you. I don't want to know you. Buzz off! Explode!

• Gulley Jimson : [to Nosey]  Now see what you've done. Got me locked out for life.

  [Referring to prison] 

• Constable : Mr. Jimson?

  Gulley Jimson : No. That's my first cousin, once removed, an artist who's always getting into trouble with the police. He just went up the road. Shall I call him back?

  Constable : Have you just sent a telephone message of a threatening character to Mr. Hickson of Portland Place?

  Gulley Jimson : I only said I'd burn his house down and cut his liver out.

  Constable : Now he doesn't want to prosecute, but if you go on making a nuissance of yourself, well, he's gonna have to take steps.

  Gulley Jimson : Would he rather I cut his liver out without phoning?

  Constable : Now, come now, Mr. Jimson. Put yourself in his place.

  Gulley Jimson : I wish I could. It's a very nice place.

• Gulley Jimson : Of course you want to be an artist. Everybody does, once. But they get over it, like measles and chicken pox.

  Nosey : But there have to be artists!

  Gulley Jimson : And lunatics too! But why go and live in an asylum before you're sent for?

• Hodges : Are you sure that Sir and Lady Beeder are expecting you?

  Gulley Jimson : Expecting me? They're down on their knees praying for me.

• Gulley Jimson : Anyone at home? Mrs. Morton Graines Waring? She's gone to Java.

  Abel : That's all right, I'll work down there. Come. I want to get started.

• Gulley Jimson : I like it here: bricks and broken glass, and an old garbage can. It's the story of my life.

• Gulley Jimson : It could happen to anyone, dear. All the greatest artists got their squares wrong. Numbers were invented by Arabs who hate art.

• Gulley Jimson : Thirty seconds of revelation is worth a million years of know-nothings.

• Painter at side of ship : Where do you think you're goin', dad? What's the big idea?

  Gulley Jimson : [Final Lines]  Ah, 'there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green'

  [quoting final lines of G.K. Chesterton's 'The Rolling English Road.'] 

• Gulley Jimson : I have news for you... I'm going to be a little bit ill.

• Gulley Jimson : It's the kind of face you want to throw a brick at, don't you think?

• Sara Monday : [Introduces Jimson to Dicky]  This is Mr. Jimson. He's an artist.

  Gulley Jimson : Since when?

  Sara Monday : [to Dicky]  You've never seen a real artist before, have you?

  Constable : [Dicky sticks out tongue to Jimson] 

  Gulley Jimson : You've got the right idea, son. Why don't you bite me? That's the way to treat strangers. Make them respect you.

• Sara Monday : Oh, Gully. God bless you. You don't throw a woman's weakness in her face. You know how God made us. That's the funny thing about you. You know about women.

  Gulley Jimson : When it comes to a wife, give me a woman every time.

• Gulley Jimson : You've got your whale upside down.

  Bit Role : Sybille

  [a painter] 

  Bit Role : But Mr. Jimson, surely a whale doesn't have its eye *under* its jaw, does it?

  Gulley Jimson : Gully Jimson: Naught of your sarcasm, now. *My* whales do. Otherwise, they wouldn't be real; they'd just be pictures out of a whale book.

  Bit Role : Sybille

  [a painter] 

  Bit Role : Shall I try and reverse it?

  Gulley Jimson : Not now. It's too late.

• Gulley Jimson : [speaking to some helpers]  When you've finished that, you can start on the Damned: D8, 9 and 10. We may need tigers and orchids; or fly catchers and flesh eaters; Flowers of Evil - or a borough councilor eating a baby for breakfast.