The Skin Game (1931)

UK 77m, B&W
Director: Alfred Hitchcock; Cast: Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye, C.V. France, Jill Esmond, John Longden, Phyllis Konstam

A dreary social melodrama, The Skin Game is an oddity in Hitchcock’s film catalogue. Lacking the intrigue, suspense and thrills which are usually associated with Hitchcock productions, this is a slow-moving film that is heavy in dialogue about two families with opposing world views. The Hornblowers, are self-made people with “new” money, and the Hillcrists are the old guard – the entitled local gentry. Though glimpses of sophisticated camera work occasionally shine through this mundane affair, The Skin Game is little more than a curiosity for die-hard Hitchcock fans (Klaus Ming January 2014).