MovieChat Forums > The Horse's Mouth (1958) Discussion > Inconclusive ending (possible spolilers)

Inconclusive ending (possible spolilers)


Hi -

I recently learned of this film in an article about Ken Kesey and was glad to see it. (Apparently it was one of Kesey's favorite films.) I really liked it a lot, but I was really surprised when it ended. I am not familiar with the original novel, but in the film at least it hardly seemed like the story was at a real stopping point.

Maybe I missed something, but in today's film market you would assume it ended the way it did in order to set up "The Horse's Mouth II"

- TWR, Redondo Beach, California

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the book has a much more downbeat ending, i think they wqnted the fiom to end on a more cheerful note.

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the book has a much more downbeat ending, i suppose they wanted the film to end on a more cheerful note.

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I certainly never thought they were setting up a sequel. I found it a very satisfying ending, and not at all inconclusive.

I think the ending is impressionistic, to go with the style of Jimson's painting, and the suggestion is very strong that Gulley Jimson dies at the end of “The Horse’s Mouth”, for the following reasons.

1) In the novel, he has a stroke and his first person narrative concludes with this. Presumably, the end is near when he says the last words which are in reply to a nun who is accompanying him in the ambulance, and who says that he should be praying, not laughing. "Same thing, Mother," says Jimson. This ending was apparently too downbeat for a comedy film, so they presented Jimson's death symbolically.

2) His last words in the film are a quotation,

“For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.”

This is from “The Rolling English Road” by G. K. Chesterton. Kensal Green is West along the Thames from Tower Bridge, the final image of the film. Gulley is quite literally, “Going West” and "to Paradise by way of Kensal Green". And the Thames is here a kind of symbolic River Styx. Death is certainly on Jimson's mind as he says these lines.

3) Everyone he knows gathers to see him off, tearfully. Nosey gives a kind of brief eulogy as Jimson sails off into the sunset.

4) He leaves with the tide. Symbolically, when people die, they are often thought to "go out with the tide".

5) As Jimson passes the big ship moored at the quayside, he sizes it up with his thumb. This doesn’t have to mean anything, but it is at least a spirited gesture implying that he still has it in him — to the end, as it were.

6) As Jimson sails through the bridge at the very end, the part of Lieutenant Kije that is played is the theme from 'Kije's Burial', at which point the two halves of Tower Bridge are raised in salutation and the words, "The End" appear on the screen.

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