Customer Reviews

Skin Game [VHS]

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Let's get something straight right off the bat: this is not a "thriller" in any meaningful sense. Some reviewers here and elsewhere seem bent on comparing every one of the 50+ films Alfred Hitchcock made in his 50 year career to PSYCHO or NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but the fact is that he did make other kinds of films (though not many after 1934 or so), and it's unfair to judge this film, or any of his other non-suspense films, for not being in the genre that he eventually ended up working in most frequently. In his early years as a director, Hitchcock made films in a variety of genres, on a variety of themes, and they should be judged I think for what they are - not for what they never pretend to be.

That out of the way, THE SKIN GAME dates from 1931 and is a domestic drama dealing with ethical dilemmas; it's most reminiscent of his 1929 late silent THE MANXMAN to me, and like that film it takes a relatively progressive attitude about sex and the role (or lack of role) of women in British society. In this case, we have a wealthy newly-monied man of a lower station, Mr. Hornblower (Edmund Gwenn) who is intent on purchasing a large block of land and tearing up the old houses and countryside for the purpose of building factories and tenant dwellings for his workers. He is opposed by the old-money Mr. Hillcrist (C.V. France) and his wife (Helen Haye), and in the process of their burgeoning feud their children and in particular Hornblower's daughter-in-law Chloe (Phyllis Konstam) become involved mostly against their will - and suffer consequences as a result that only make the hatreds increase.

Though this is stagy (it is in fact based on a John Galsworthy play, adapted here by the director and his wife, Alma Reville), and the lack of music combined with long and dense dialogue-heavy scenes can make for some hard-going passages, on the whole I found this pretty engaging, and the growing moral ambiguity of the entire cast of characters is quite powerful. At first many people will side with the Hillcrists and the peasants who live on the lands that the rapacious Hornblower is buying up willy-nilly, and Hornblower doesn't make himself endearing, claiming more than once that his factories and his workers are "worth more" than the people he's moving off, and that he doesn't care about them at all. But soon the tables are turned on him, and we see the snobbish Hillcrists as people who don't care so much about their fellow, poorer villagers as they do about maintaining their own lives the way they always have - whatever the cost; and there's also a generational conflict at play, with the younger people's desires essentially ignored in the battle between their elders. I should add at this point that Gwenn, the only name here who is likely to be familiar to most viewers, is just terrific in an unpleasant yet ultimately somewhat sympathetic role, and France and Haye almost match him. Some of the younger actors, particularly Konstam, seem to think they're still in a silent film unfortunately, and there's more than a bit of overacting amongst them.

But it's Hitchcock's camera and his sure sense of pacing and developing a scene that are really the stars here; a couple of examples that stand out are the brilliant pan to an unspoiled forest as Hillcrist is talking about what's being lost with all this development - only to have the forest become a poster that Hornblower walks past on his way to the auction to buy the land it's advertising; the auction sequence itself is tense and exciting in the best Hitchcock thriller manner (see, there is some suspense after all - for a moment); and the revelatory sequence involving Chloe and her father-in-law near the end of the film, as the camera pans out revealing just the two of them, looking lost in a huge and grand old manorial room. It's great stuff, and had a few of the performances been tweaked a bit, and some of the earlier scenes been a bit more dynamic, this could have been a classic. As it is, it's a fine example of Hitch's versatility, and his interest in the ethical element in people's treatment of each other which never really deserted him.

Most of the copies of THE SKIN GAME on video are fairly poor; I have both this Republic VHS and a copy on a 6-disk cheapo early Hitchcock set and while they're watchable enough (and are almost identical) they have a lot of hiss which can make the dialogue challenging occasionally. Your best bet for quality if you're interested in early Hitchcock, including this film, is The Alfred Hitchcock Box Set from Lionsgate, which also contains THE RING, MURDER!, THE MANXMAN and RICH AND STRANGE in the best copies you can get, at least on Region 1 DVD. While none of the five are among Hitchcock's very best, or even perhaps among the best of his British work, they're all illuminating examples of a young director trying out all kinds of stuff, and finding out what would stick.

The movie was indeed boring in parts and the dialogue was insufferable at times---but the kernals of truth that popped out here and there were priceless. If you have a next door neighbor who is oblivious to reality and how he or she is negatively impacting your neighborhood---(as I do!) you HAVE to watch this flick! Some great one-liners I won't forget came out of this one! Mary from Northville (And keep praying---that they move!)