THE SKIN GAME is a superbly written Galsworthy play, pitting the landed gentry against the unscrupulous and upcoming entrepreneur, both fighting over a piece of land and its future.
Except for a handful of clever camera and editing tricks (Hitchcock's trademark thus far in his career), this is for the most part a very crudely photographed and amateurishly edited sound film. There is no tension and interest in the proceedings is purely academic, when the audience should be gripped from beginning to end.
Acting honors go to stage veteran Helen Haye as the matriarch, Amy Hillcrist, and Edmund Gwenn, as Hornblower, the grasping factory owner. Watching them lock horns is like watching Clinton and Trump fighting for their own highly diverse ways of life.
Jill Esmond is of interest mainly due to her being Olivier's first wife (before Vivien Leigh) and rarely seen by USA audiences. Her performance is a bit mannered and she hasn't much to do as the ingénue. (Oddly enough Leigh was a bit player, visible in one scene, in Hitch's next film, RICH AND STRANGE.)
The clever bits: contrasting the two young heirs with back to back shots depicting their arrivals home, she on horseback down an avenue of trees, he in a motor car towards a modern home; a montage of sound and close-ups, using overlapping dialogue and dog barking; the attempted foreclosure being sound alone, as we stand outside the cottage; pullback from the land in question as it becomes a photograph (a technique Hitch used previously in CHAMPAGNE), the boring auction details being read so softly as to be inaudible; the continuous movement of the camera during the auction as a point of view uninterrupted by cuts; the accusing face repeatedly zooming forward from the crowd.
My print ran 1:18:35, while IMDb variously times it at 78 and 85 minutes.
To sum up, an excellent play, for the most part flatly presented with a few cinematic tricks. Hardly top drawer film making, but for the most part enjoyable.
Except for a handful of clever camera and editing tricks (Hitchcock's trademark thus far in his career), this is for the most part a very crudely photographed and amateurishly edited sound film. There is no tension and interest in the proceedings is purely academic, when the audience should be gripped from beginning to end.
Acting honors go to stage veteran Helen Haye as the matriarch, Amy Hillcrist, and Edmund Gwenn, as Hornblower, the grasping factory owner. Watching them lock horns is like watching Clinton and Trump fighting for their own highly diverse ways of life.
Jill Esmond is of interest mainly due to her being Olivier's first wife (before Vivien Leigh) and rarely seen by USA audiences. Her performance is a bit mannered and she hasn't much to do as the ingénue. (Oddly enough Leigh was a bit player, visible in one scene, in Hitch's next film, RICH AND STRANGE.)
The clever bits: contrasting the two young heirs with back to back shots depicting their arrivals home, she on horseback down an avenue of trees, he in a motor car towards a modern home; a montage of sound and close-ups, using overlapping dialogue and dog barking; the attempted foreclosure being sound alone, as we stand outside the cottage; pullback from the land in question as it becomes a photograph (a technique Hitch used previously in CHAMPAGNE), the boring auction details being read so softly as to be inaudible; the continuous movement of the camera during the auction as a point of view uninterrupted by cuts; the accusing face repeatedly zooming forward from the crowd.
My print ran 1:18:35, while IMDb variously times it at 78 and 85 minutes.
To sum up, an excellent play, for the most part flatly presented with a few cinematic tricks. Hardly top drawer film making, but for the most part enjoyable.