01
The Horse's Mouth
Why this pick
A superb match for Hancock’s would-be painter: an unruly, self-absorbed artist pursues a grand vision through a sharply observed British comedy of manners.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1961 1h 45m GBR
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Rebel
Comedy
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Rebel, try these.
01
02
The Punch and Judy Man
Why this pick
Another Tony Hancock vehicle, with his distinctive mixture of wounded pride, futile ambition and comic isolation, now set against a smug English seaside community.
03
The Man in the White Suit
Why this pick
A determined outsider’s idealistic project collides with the hypocrisies of respectable society in an ingenious, lightly surreal Ealing satire.
04
Only Two Can Play
Why this pick
Peter Sellers brings a similarly brittle comic vanity to this provincial satire, where frustrated aspiration and pretension make ordinary life deliciously ridiculous.
05
Private's Progress
Why this pick
For the same appetite for British institutional satire: its hero navigates a world of pompous authority, self-interest and meticulously staged comic frustration.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Hancock plays a disaffected London office clerk who gives up his office job to pursue full-time his vocation as an artist. Single-mindedly, and with an enthusiasm far exceeding any artistic talent, he sets to work on his supposed masterpiece ''Aphrodite at the Waterhole'', moving to Paris where he expects his genius will be appreciated. While his ideas and persona gain acceptance (indeed plaudits) among the "Beat generation" set, legitimate art critics, like Sir Charles Broward (George Sanders), scoff at his work. He manages to achieve success, however, when the work of his former roommate, a genuinely talented painter, becomes confused with his own. The confusion is eventually resolved after a series of art exhibitions, and he returns to London, where he pursues his 'art' in defiance of whatever others may think of it.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Tony Hancock
Anthony Hancock
George Sanders
Sir Charles Broward
Dennis Price
Jim Smith
John Le Mesurier
Office manager
