30s Hitch: The Skin Game (1931)
Along with Juno and the Paycock , The Skin Game is another "filmed play" and another work that Hitchcock dismissed out of hand(1). Rohmer and Chabrol disliked it, thinking it his worst film; Truffaut couldn't remember much about it, but the film deserves more than this; there's more going on structurally than I think many give the film credit for. To get the negatives out of the way; it is stagey, the acting varies to the point where the line readings just sound peculiar, though this may be a result of sound design, and the performances are sometimes clunky in the main. All of this makes it difficult to connect with the film (as much as in Juno , for that matter). That said, what Hitch is doing visually and sonically, is worth a look and for all that the performances feel now stiff and rigid, now relatively fluid, and then again, just plain stolid, the underlying themes of the James Galsworthy play the movie is adapted from (by Hitchcock) are compelling and stand a...