Skin Game

...As if the film isn't bad enough on it's own, this terrible, terrible video transfer by Laserlite makes the miserable experience even worse! Laserlight simply copied an already existing VHS transfer of the film, which is made apparent by several VHS tracking flaws in the film. This is totally unacceptable on a DVD! To make matters worse, the cropping is the worst I've ever seen in any movie transfer! In some scenes entire heads are cut off, leaving the viewer listening to disembodied voices talking and talking and talking for long periods of time. Wether or not the bad cropping was caused by Laserlite or the VHS transfer is irrelevant. It's bad and it shouldn't be printed this way on DVD. No matter how bad a film is, it shouldn't be treated in such a manner. The Dial M for Murder trailer and Tony Curtis' uninformed banter do not improve the entertainment experience one bit. Don't let this turn you off of these Laserlite Hitchcock DVDs, though. Most of them are good and a couple, even excellent. This is not one of those.

1 star to Hitchcock for not trying very hard in 1931, and 1 star star to Laserlite for not trying very hard in 1998


Forgetable early Hitchcock movie.   June 26, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is a review of the Laserlight DVD release of 'The Skin Game'. This is one of several early Hitchcock films that I'm sure would have been lost without trace had Hitchcock's name not appeared on the credits. In fact, Hitckcock probably wished it had disappeared without trace; there really is very little to commend this dull, boring movie. As for the DVD itself, the picture and sound quality are of an acceptable standard and Laserlight has also included a trailer for 'Dial M For Murder'. But there's no getting away from the fact that this is a cheapie DVD for Hitchcock completists only.


great suspense build-up, abrupt ending   June 24, 2000
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Hitchcock may be the master of suspense, but this movie doesn't show that mastery fully-developed. The movie starts out strong, and builds to a great climax, but then wraps up abruptly. The movie shows much of Hitchcock's skill at building suspense, but doesn't deliver an ending to match the rising tension. It's too bad, because the build-up is very strong. Pay attention to the epilogue scene for great use of irony.

About the title: A "skin game" means a swindle, trick, or scam.

The movie starts with Hornblower (Edmund Gwenn) buying property from the proud, proper English landowner Hillcrest (C.V. France), assuring him that the tenant farmers would be allowed to stay. Soon Hornblower evicts them to build factories, because he is a man of progress and industry. Hillcrest is outraged, and sets out to stop Hornblower's efforts to buy up land for more factories.

Hillcrest attempts to slow down Hornblower's land purchases by rigging an auction on some property that's up for sale. But Hornblower figures out the scheme, and outsmarts Hillcrest with his own tricks. Hillcrest escalates the feud by hiring a man to dig up dirt on Hornblower and his family.

For a longer version of this review, with spoilers (and a spoiler warning), see IMDB.


A very old movie   March 11, 2000
 3 out of 7 found this review helpful

This Laserlight version is decent quality, given that the movie is almost 70 years old. The movie itself, however, put me to sleep. Very little humor or suspense, and I expected one or the other from Hitchcock.