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The Skin Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Skin Game | |
|---|---|
 Region 4 DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | John Maxwell |
| Written by | John Galsworthy (play) Alfred Hitchcock (adaptation) Alma Reville (scenario) |
| Starring | Edmund Gwenn Helen Haye C.V. France |
| Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
| Distributed by | Wardour Films Ltd. |
| Release date(s) | February 26, 1931 UK release |
| Running time | 77 mins |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Skin Game is a 1931 film by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a play by John Galsworthy. The story revolves around two rival families, the Hillcrests and the Hornblowers, and the disastrous results of the feud between them. Produced by British International Pictures (BIP), this film is considered by some critics to mark a low point in Hitchcock's career. He had been commissioned to transform a stage play into a movie, and stuck strictly to the plot, without adding the same personal flair that stood out in his previous film, Murder!.
After being thought in the public domain for decades, the film's rights were obtained by French media company Canal+ in 2005. A restored and remastered print of the film was released on DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2007.
The plot tells the story of two affluent families, the established Hillcrests, played by C.V. France, Helen Haye, and Jill Esmond, and the nouveau riche Hornblowers, played by Edmund Gwenn, John Longden, and Frank Lawton. The Hillcrests are put off by the Hornblowers, who are surrounding their rural estate with factories, and make every effort to preserve the last piece of open land adjoining their own properties. After being tricked out of the land in an auction, the Hillcrests learn a dark secret about Mr. Hornblower's daughter-in-law (played by Phyllis Konstam), who had once supported herself as an escort. When he is told the news, Mr. Hornblower agrees to sell the property to the Hillcrests for less than half the auction price on the condition that the family swears to keep the secret, but the news leaks out, causing a scandal in the Hornblower family. Chloe Hornblower goes to the Hillcrests, begging them to help keep the secret from her husband, who is aware that something is going on, then hides behind a curtain when her husband storms into the Hillcrest home demanding to know the secret. Keeping his promise to Chloe, Mr. Hillcrest makes up a story, but the young Hornblower is not convinced and declares that he intends to end his marriage, even though Chloe is pregnant. Upon hearing this, Chloe runs to the lily pond outside the Hillcrest home and drowns herself. When her body is discovered, the elder Hornblower concedes that Hillcrest has destroyed him, and Hillcrest attempts to apologize.
Hitchcock was bored throughout the making of the Skin Game and spent most of the shoot demonstrating for the cast how he wanted them to act. According to one account, his performances were "much more vivid ... than they ever achieved themselves". The highlight for him was when the stage hands threw Phyllis Konstam into the lily pond; he made them rehearse this at least ten times.
After the disappointment of this film, Hitchcock learned to take advantage of the next filmed stage play that he was ordered by his studio bosses to make. He transformed Number Seventeen into a burlesque of all of his previous thrillers, without the studio bosses realizing what he had done.