The Skin Game – 1931 | 85mins | Drama| B&W

Plot Synopsis

The Skin Game, followed Hitchcock’s Murder in 1931. The film was taken from the play by John Galsworthy and adapted by Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville. Edmund Gwenn starred as Mr. Hornblower, who is at odds with an aristocratic landowner, Hillcrest, played by C. V. France. The film is more Galsworthy than Hitchcock and seems very stagy. Hitchcock’s imagination is never particularly keen during this production and frequently there are lengthy discourses between two characters without the slightest semblance of movement to the picture, now and then Hitchcock has a fairly good idea but it is never brilliant and several of the scenes are not helped by too much footage.

Extract© Richard A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky: The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock.