The Skin Game (1931)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 85 minuten
Country:
United Kingdom
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye and Jill Esmond
IMDb score:
5,7 (3.781)
Releasedate: 26 February 1931
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
The Skin Game plot
mr. Hornblower has bought a piece of land from the English landowner Hillcrist, promising not to develop the land. If Hornblower wants to establish industry there, Hillcrist is furious. Hillcrist wants to prevent the plans from going ahead in every possible way. But every time Hornblower outsmarts him. Until Mrs. Hillcrist learns something about Cloe Hornblower, which allows Hillcrist to blackmail his rival.
Actors and actresses
Mr. Hillcrist
Mrs. Hillcrist
Jill Hillcrist
Mr. Hornblower
Charles Hornblower
Chloe Hornblower
Rolf Hornblower
Dawker
Mrs. Jackman
Second Stranger
Reviews & comments
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 13960 messages
- 4234 votes
Moderate Hitchcock. The story was barely interesting and the execution is also very solid. The film really starts to drag, especially towards the end. Clearly still on the border between silent film and talkies, where the acting in particular suffers. Some nice moments like the whole auction (including a part in which someone suddenly can't be understood, very nicely done) and a great shot from a poster and the camera pointing to slides back. But too little over the entire playing time to be able to give this a sufficient rating. 2.0*.
mrklm
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- 10103 messages
- 9238 votes
Edmund Gwenn is good as the shrewd patriarch of the Hornblower family who battles the Hillcrist family for a piece of land. Talkative drama with too many fringe characters becomes really interesting only during the auction in which the piece of land in question is sold. The dynamic camerawork in this scene stands in stark contrast to the blandly filmed, dialogue-ridden scenes surrounding it.
Lovelyboy
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- 3555 messages
- 2633 votes
And the last one from the Hitchcock Platinum Collection box and looking at the grade average not exactly one of the best. Still sitting down with the best intentions, partly because of the comment from NarcissusBladsp. But I couldn't exactly share his enthusiasm and good assessment in that sense.
Still, The Skin Game, which means something like a 'dirty game', gets the benefit of the doubt, partly due to its age. Nice are the attempts at an extensive story with lots of lines, and how people work with sets so that a film feels very big at the time always has a good luck factor. In any case, the battle in words between Hillcrest and Hornblower is not wrong given the year '31 and can be called quite sharp, but it soon stops there.
Because the dialogues are regularly on the long side while they don't all matter. It cannot be otherwise that a story like this, which should not be tense anyway, is subject to disinterest at a certain point, despite the little things that the hand of the master shows. Then also with difficulty sat through the 85 minutes to come to the conclusion that this Hitchcock, just like Number 17, is not the best of the Platinum Collection. I read 13 euro purchase somewhere, I have the box for one euro at the thrift store, lucky me. Taken as a whole box, I can only conclude that it contains excellent films such as 39 steps, The Lady Vanishes and The man who knew to much, but the real good years of Hitchcock were still to come.
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