Movielogr

Rating: 6 stars

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kino lorber black and white family feud England blackmail attempted suicide scandal

All movies seen on 08/31/2023

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The Skin Game (1931)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Drama

Most recently watched by sleestakk

Overview

An old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village.

Length 82 minutes

Actors

C.V. France | Helen Haye | Jill Esmond | Edmund Gwenn | John Longden | Phyllis Konstam | Frank Lawton | Edward Chapman | Dora Gregory | George Bancroft | R.E. Jeffrey | Herbert Ross | Ronald Frankau | Rodney Ackland | Ivor Barnard | Wally Patch

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

This one is about some pretty mean-spirited business and it moves along at a nicely dramatic pace. The standout here is Phyllis Konstam as Chloe Hornblower who finds herself a casualty in the war between two families. She does a great turn as the nervous, anxiety-ridden daughter-in-law of the industrialist Hornblower who thinks he can bruise knuckles when going toe-to-toe with the seemingly more virtuous Hillcrests as he looks to essentially pave over their pastoral country village and surroundings. Unfortunately for both Hornblower and his daughter-in-law, the Hillcrest matriarch gives better than she gets and the whole thing slides into the mud for all parties involved.

There’s a great quote from Mr. Hillcrest that ends the film: “What is it that gets loose when you start a fight, and makes you what you think you’re not? Begin as you may, it ends in this skin game! Skin game! When we began this fight, we’d clean hands. Are they clean now? What’s gentility worth if it can’t stand fire?”

There’s not much to speak of in terms of the how the film is constructed or shot, with the exception of the camera’s point of view during a land auction as it flits to and fro between two competing bidders from the point of view of the auctioneer.

Unlike the other three films on disc two of this set, this one is a sound picture. I’m not sure this story could have been told as well if it were a silent film, or at least not in the same manner.

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