Review of The Skin Game

Being an all-talking motion picture play, with only a minimum of location film, this movie was exactly what early 1930s audiences wanted. It's better than the crudest film from the era, but still technically difficult to watch. The story of feuding clans, written by John Galsworthy ("The Forsythe Saga"), is a good one; and features characters teeming with soap opera possibilities. The battling families are led by Edmund Gwenn (as Hornblower) and C.V. France (as Hillcrist). Interloping Mr. Gwenn is buying up, and industrializing, land. This does not sit well with Mr. France, who has lived in the area for generations.

Helen Haye (Mrs. Hillcrist) goes to bat for her side, against Gwenn; she discovers a shocking secret about Phyllis Konstam (as Chloe), wife of John Longden (as Charles Hornblower). The "younger generation" (and probable end of the "Hillcrist" line) is represented by Jill Esmond (as Jill Hillcrist) and Frank Lawton (as Rolf Hornblower); today, this young couple can best be described as "two twits". "The Skin Game" was directed by a seemingly bored Alfred Hitchcock; notably, it was his first film with Gwenn. Repeating their roles from the 1921 silent film version, Gwenn and Ms. Haye do a good job as the main battlers.

**** The Skin Game (2/26/31) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye, C.V. France, Phyllis Konstam