Under My Skin (1950)

On the run from gamblers he double-crossed, expatriate jockey Danny Butler tries to justify his son's faith in him as a winner.

Director:

Jean Negulesco

Writers:

Ernest Hemingway (story), Casey Robinson (screenplay)

Stars:

John Garfield, Micheline Presle, Luther Adler

Cast

Complete credited cast:
John Garfield	...	Dan Butler
Micheline Presle	...	Paule Manet (as Micheline Prelle)
Luther Adler	...	Louis Bork
Orley Lindgren	...	Joe Butler
Noel Drayton	...	George Gardner

Storyline

After expatriate American jockey Danny Arnold double-crosses ruthless gambler Louis Bork, he flees Italy with his adoring son Joe, who isn't aware of his father's lies and corruption. While in France he begins a relationship with a beautiful French nightclub singer and buys a problematic racehorse that no one seems to be able to train. After Joe suggests that the horse has a future as a jumper, Danny converts him to the steeplechase and turns him into a consistent winner. When Bork shows up and tells him he must lose the big race or die, Danny must weigh his life against his son's faith that he has become a man of honor.

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Plot Keywords:

jockey | steeplechase | gambler | nightclub | singer | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sport | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian French

Release Date:

1 June 1950 (France)

Also Known As:

A Vingança do Destino

Filming Locations:

Sherwood Forest, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Albert Valentino, brother of Rudolph Valentino, coached John Garfield with his Italian dialect.

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Quotes

Paule Manet: [Trying to convince him to throw the race] But it's just one more race!
Dan Butler: Just one race - one more and one more, and that's the way it goes! When I was fifteen, I threw my first one. I've thrown hundreds since. Now look at me! The places I run away from! The places I can't show my face! A guy ends up playing tag with himself! He's gotta stop sometime!

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Connections

Remade as My Old Man (1979)

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Soundtracks

Stranger in the Night
Music by Alfred Newman
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
French lyrics by Tanis Chandler (uncredited)
Performed by Micheline Presle (uncredited)

User Reviews

"Are you even running out of places to leave?"

This is a much underrated and almost unknown and forgotten crown jewel among the Hemingway screenings, and it's an odd one out for Hemingway, as it's an unusual character prying into the depths of a heel fighting it out with destiny for his honour, which he has been losing all his life. We never get to know anything about his background, why he can't talk of America, let alone go back, and Micheline Presle, who appears to know all about him throughout from the beginning, treats him like poison. It's the boy that saves everything, he is the only thing he has to live for, and it's for him he finally risks his life to save his honour. At least he saves one of them.

Micheline Presle makes a very convincing appearance as one of Hemingway's most hard-boiled women, out-shadowing even Ava Gardner by her hard experience and relentless attitude, which only the boy can soften and only by his absolute honesty of innocence. Even when the father hits him and treats him with flamboyant treachery, the boy continues to believe in him and trust him, and the departure scene at the station, when he sends the boy away by train, with its following scenes, is heart-rending and the apex of the film, culminating with Micheline's singing performance, almost as poignant as Edith Piaf. This is a great film in its dire human realism, the story of a greater conflict and more difficult battle than any war, of a man struggling with impossible odds for an impossible honour out of reach, and how he gets through with it after all.

John Garfield is almost even better here than in "The Breaking Point" on Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not", the better and later version than Bogart's, here he plays an equally doubtful character posed against impossible odds, but here the addition of the boy and that relationship suddenly gives John Garfield's dubious character an ocean of interesting depth.