The Bottom Line (1958)

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Movie
German title The crux of the matter
Original title The Horse's Mouth
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1958
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ronald Neame
script Alec Guinness
production John Bryan
Ronald Neame
music Kenneth V. Jones
camera Arthur Ibbetson
cut Anne V. Coates
occupation

The Bottom Line is a 1958 British comedy film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Alec Guinness . The film is based on a novel by Joyce Cary .

action

Eccentric painter Gulley Jimson is sentenced to a month in prison for harassing his sponsor, old Mr. Hickson, over the phone. Nosy Barbon, who is enthusiastic about Jimson's art of painting, receives him after his release right in front of the prison gates, but is quickly brought back down to earth by Gulley. Because Jimson makes Nosey, who absolutely wants to be a painter himself, clear that one cannot live from the "high art". Jimson then returns to his houseboat, which his friend Coker, who works in a bar, has taken care of in his absence. Jimson, a snotty scrounger, shrewd slob and a little scrupulous bon vivant, tries to borrow money from Hickson and Coker. The broken painter and his girlfriend therefore later visit Hickson in order to collect a pound or two for Jimson's works of art, which this Jimson's ex-wife Sara Monday had bought. Hickson knows the tricks and tricks of Jimson all too well and is not particularly good at talking to him. At an opportune moment, Jimson tries to secretly take the works he once painted with him from Hickson's house, but Coker stops him. Hickson immediately calls the police, but Jimson and Coker escape. A little later, Jimson receives a message from AW Alabaster, the secretary of the respected Sir William Beeder and his wife. These are interested in purchasing Jimson's early works of art. Jimson and Coker try to get one of these works back from Sara, but she doesn't want to sell it.

When Jimson visits the Beeders, he sees a blank wall there and lets himself be inspired to create a new work of art. And so his latest work "The Resurrection of Lazarus" soon adorns that wall of the Beeders. Since Sir and Lady Beeder traveled to Bermuda for six weeks , Gulley Jimson has a correspondingly long free run. Gulley's old artist colleague Abel finds out where Jimson has temporarily settled and now, much to Gulley's annoyance, also moves into the lordly Beeders' building without permission. Abel has a huge block of marble delivered because he has received an order from British Rail to make a sculpture. Since Gulley is notoriously bare and the Beeders are still traveling, Jimson pledges the lord's valuables, which he can get hold of in such a short time. Abel's marble block arrives and promptly plops onto the floor on the top floor of the building, creating a huge hole. When Sir William and his wife return home, they are completely shocked by the “Lazarus” painting and shortly afterwards they also fall through the hole in the floor. Jimson returns to his houseboat and finds Coker there. She was fired by her boss, the bar owner, when he read about the incident at Hickson's residence in the press. Late that evening, Coker surprises Jimson with news that Hickson is dead and that he allegedly bequeathed his collection of Jimson's works to "the nation." These works are on display at the Tate Gallery , which Jimson visits immediately. A long line has formed in front of his exhibition in which Jimson identifies his ex Sara. He urges her to finally return the Gulley painting that is in her possession, but he asks to return it. Annoyed by Jimson, she puts a long roll in his hand, in which Jimson suspects his rolled-up work.

Back at home on the houseboat, he finds out that not only is he duping people, but that this time Sara has cheated on him: there is only toilet paper in the roll! In a rage, Jimson goes to Sara's house with Nosey. There it comes to a scuffle in which Sara is knocked unconscious when Jimson tries to grab "his" painting and take it with him. Now the mad artist is in real trouble. Jimson and Nosey seek refuge in an abandoned church. There the “master” immediately finds inspiration for a new creation called “The Last Judgment”. Thankfully, like Beeder's property, the church also has a white wall that can be painted. Jimson, Nosey and Coker find out that this church is to be demolished in the next two weeks and therefore organize several young people on site to help complete Jimson's ultimate “masterpiece”. The shrewd painter even hired Lady Beeder for himself! A community representative who is overseeing the demolition of the building disapproves of their activities and wants to intervene. The painting will be completed on the planned day of the demolition. On the day of completion, however, the construction crew arrives to tear down the church. Jimson shows up with a bulldozer and without further ado drives through the wall he has just painted. He would rather destroy his own work than let others do it. Gulley Jimson runs back to his boat and sails down the Thames in search of new art adventures before the beckoning Nosey and Coker can stop him.

Production notes

The film, shot in the Shepperton Studios in London from the end of January to the end of February 1957, had its world premiere in London on November 11, 1958. On February 13, 1959, it premiered in Germany. The first broadcast on German television took place on May 21, 1965 on ZDF .

Albert Fennell took over the production management. Bill Andrews designed the film set, Julia Squire the costumes. Tony Woollard worked as a draftsman on this production. Muir Mathieson conducted the composition by Kenneth V. Jones .

Awards and nominations

Winner:

Nominations:

  • Nominated for an Oscar , Best Adapted Screenplay category for Alec Guinness
  • 1958 Venice International Film Festival : Golden Lion for Ronald Neame
  • Nomination for the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Alec Guinness
  • Nomination for the BAFTA Award for Alec Guinness (screenplay) and Kay Walsh
  • Nomination for the Laurel Award for Alec Guinness

useful information

The German film title “ Des Pudels Kern ” is a saying from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust .

This was the last film for young Mike Morgan, who as Nosey was here for the second time at Guinness' side. He died of meningitis before the premiere .

Reviews

The film received mostly sensational reviews, only a few disliked the exuberant reviews. Here are a few examples:

Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times of November 12, 1958, "The writer Alec Guinness [have] brought up a funny and poignant script that the actor Alec Guinness put into action with astonishing clarity and zeal." Crowthers conclusion: “The film is the triumph - and it's all his. Well, maybe not his alone. A truly incredible cast of nearly flawless British cast are helping Mr. Guinness mold one of the most succinct artist films ever made. John Bryan made a fine staging possible, and Ronald Neame, his director, put the whole thing together splendidly and presented an ideal walking pace. But it is clearly the role that Mr. Guinness has filtered out for himself and that he plays that gives "The Horse's Mouth" a fundamental enrichment and meaning. "

The Movie & Video Guide states: "Joyce Cary's eccentric novel was done admirably, with Guinness as the eccentric, stuttering painter."

Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be a "thin, but jerkily amusing, lightweight study of a socially outcast" and concluded: "Too lightweight to be really successful."

News of the World indulged in seeing “the work of a genius” here, and the Evening Standard stated that the film was “extraordinarily and gratifyingly successful” at what it was intended to do.

The lexicon of international films reads: “A curious painter is at the center of this anecdotal comedy full of bizarre and tragicomic episodes - whereby fun and profundity are not always convincingly combined. But lead actor Alec Guinness compensates for this, who is a skilful mixture of stupidity and cunning, ingenuity and shabby rip-offs. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review in the New York Times
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 596
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 480
  4. ↑ ibid.
  5. ↑ The core of the matter. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 25, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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