The Lion's Mouth is a 2000 film directed by Ken Russell. It was known as Leonmania.[1]
Russell made it in his own house for his own money for a budget of 20,000 pounds.[2] It launched Russell on a series of self financed "underground" films, a return to the sort of movies he made at the start of his career.[3]
During the making of the film Russell said "I haven't enjoyed the experience of making a film since Amelia and the Angel. Everything in between had its ups and downs, but somehow I think this is really me, this film... I'm totally responsible for it and I didn't want to do it any other way."[4]
The film was inspired by the Reverend Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey, a rector in the 1930s who helped prostitutes.
When no actor seemed suitable for the role of the vicar, Russell decided to change the film to be a Citizen Kane style investigation of a journalist into the history of the vicar.[5]