"The Skin Game" is a great example of Hitchcock's trek into the cinematic master that was to become. His 15th film as a director, the first 10 being silent films, and the film's soundtrack suffers from the same sort of distractions that all cinematic innovations seem to generate; early color films often used overly intense and saturated colors, the first widescreens spread the action out simply because they could, and 3D movies used deliberate dimensional effects that had no real part of the movie (the paddle-ball guy in "House of Wax" comes immediately to mind). There are several sequences where people are shouting, dogs are barking, and car horns are blowing - having absolutely nothing to do with the plot, but certainly it stunned the audience of its day with ACTUAL SOUND! The soundtrack was very obviously redubbed (and rather poorly in places) probably due to the camera equipment being so noisy. To make matters worse, the dogs barking sound suspiciously like people, and there are a lot of sequences of dialog where the actors deliberately turn their backs to the camera - redubbing is much easier when you don't have to lip-sync. There are also several scenes that have a noticeable lack of sound effects until the characters begin speaking (example: Hornblower leaves a house, closes the door, walks to his car and gets in, all in complete silence... something that the audiences of the day would probably never have noticed).
I won't duplicate the descriptions that others have left - the plot is not very complicated, so long as you can follow the dialog through the poor soundtrack and the various British accents. Even the DVD soundtrack is horribly inconsistent, but the film is still worth the time for any Hitchcock fan. This is a film that could benefit greatly from having subtitles - and the DVD does indeed have subtitles - but only in French, Spanish, and Portuguese... no English!
The conflict of old money versus new money and the unstoppable progress of industry eroding away at the established lifestyle of the days of the land-owners figure prominently in the plot. The film "bookends" in a truly bittersweet way with an elderly couple and their cottage, which results in what was easily the most stunning comment of the entire film (far more startling than the "big secret" that the film really revolves around). If you look close enough, there's a really significant story... and it's worth the effort. I'd give it a 6 out of 10 for today, but probably a 7.5 for its day.
ANTI-SPOILER: Don't look for the traditional Hitchcock cameo. He doesn't make an appearance in this film. ;)
I won't duplicate the descriptions that others have left - the plot is not very complicated, so long as you can follow the dialog through the poor soundtrack and the various British accents. Even the DVD soundtrack is horribly inconsistent, but the film is still worth the time for any Hitchcock fan. This is a film that could benefit greatly from having subtitles - and the DVD does indeed have subtitles - but only in French, Spanish, and Portuguese... no English!
The conflict of old money versus new money and the unstoppable progress of industry eroding away at the established lifestyle of the days of the land-owners figure prominently in the plot. The film "bookends" in a truly bittersweet way with an elderly couple and their cottage, which results in what was easily the most stunning comment of the entire film (far more startling than the "big secret" that the film really revolves around). If you look close enough, there's a really significant story... and it's worth the effort. I'd give it a 6 out of 10 for today, but probably a 7.5 for its day.
ANTI-SPOILER: Don't look for the traditional Hitchcock cameo. He doesn't make an appearance in this film. ;)