Under My Skin (1950) User Reviews (12)

Garfield Redeems Himself

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 2 June 2012]

I think that if John Garfield had lived he might have gone abroad as did so many of his peers did in the McCarthy era and such projects as Under My Skin might have had followups. The film is based on an Ernest Hemingway story about an exiled jockey living in Europe with his son, father and son being played by Garfield and Orley Lindgren.

It might have started out as a Hemingway story, but a seasoned film buff will recognize bits from Broadway Bill/Riding High, National Velvet, and The Champ. Garfield and Lindgren have to beat it out of Italy as he crosses up gangster Luther Adler and they flee to Paris. Where they take up with songstress Michelline Prelle and look for work, but Adler follows them there with an offer he thinks they can't refuse.

The shame and stigma for Garfield having been a cooperating witness at the HUAC hearings is roughly parallel to his role as a crooked jockey. Under My Skin is as much an explanation film for Garfield as On The Waterfront was for Elia Kazan. I think there's more Garfield/Jean Negulesco the director than Hemingway in this, Hemingway was never as sentimental as this film is.

Still it's not a bad one and I think Garfield may have done more projects like this had he lived.

An unusually unlikable character for 1950.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 3 October 2015]

Back during the era when there was a Production Code, folks who were wicked HAD to be punished and the leading men had to be nice guys. That's just the way it was. However, over the years, this code began to ease just a bit--and in the case of "Under My Skin" it seems to have eased a lot, as the leading character, Dan (John Garfield) is with barely a single redeeming quality through much of the movie.

The film begins with Dan and his young son running away from bookies in Italy. It seems that he double-crossed one of them (Luther Adler) and now he and the kid are hiding out in France. Always looking for an angle, Dan is looking for that one score to make it big...but at heart he's just a cheap hustler. His son, on the other hand, doesn't yet realize the sort of guy his dad is...but you know sooner or later he will.

For once, Dan has a chance to do the right thing. He's gotten a horse who is a winner and he can take this horse to the top...if it wasn't for the bookie. This scum has finally caught up with Dan and threatens to kill him if he doesn't throw his next race. What's Dan to do-- take it safe or work, finally, for some self-respect?

Despite being a very downbeat film, this is a very good movie. It's quite unique and the acting is excellent. My only gripes are technical. Although I really liked this film, I was NOT impressed by having Garfield play a jockey. Sure, he's not exactly tall but he's way too tall and bulky to be believable. It's a shame, as he was otherwise excellent in the film. Additionally, some of the scenes are sloppy--such as the opening scene where the guy running is pretty obviously NOT Garfield and the horse race scenes where Garfield is clearly NOT riding a real horse but is acting against a rear- projected bit of footage (in a few, however, such as the BIG race near the end, it's done MUCH better). For these reasons, I couldn't score the film a bit higher--but it still is well worth seeing. Just don't expect a feel good film!!

The least I owe him is an honest ride

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 3 July 2009]

(There are Spoilers) Based on the Earnest Hemingway short story "My Old Man" the movie "Under My Skin" is about a mobbed up jockey who late in his life learns that being honest, especially to his son, will make up for the all the dishonest things that he's done all his life.

Dan Butler, John Garfield, has been on the run from both the mob-that he stiffed back in Italy- and the racing stewards for years in his both throwing and not throwing races that he rode in. Now in the City of Lights-Paris-Dan feels that he finally got it all together with a job waiting for him at the major racetracks as a top flight jockey. Dan also expects to have a place to stay provided to him by his good friend Claude who runs a major nightclub in the city.

As things turn out no owner or trainer wants Dan to race his horses because of his mob connections! As for his good friend Claude it turns out he was killed by the mob in his being associated with Dan in a race-fixing scandal that went wrong: The horse that was supposed to lose won!

In the film Dan get's involved with Clauds girlfriend Paule Manet, Micheline Presle, who now runs his Paris nightclub. Paule who at first hated Dan's guts for having her fiancée get murdered, by the mob, in his race-fixing scheme later gets to like him! That's when she meets his cute and cuddly ten year-old son Joe, Orley Lindgren, whom Paule ends up giving French speaking lessons to.

It's also in Paris that Dan meets up with mobster Louis Bork. Luther Adler, whom he stiffed back in Italy by winning, and not throwing, a race that he bet heavily against him. Without being able to get any mounts at the local racetracks Dan has to find some way to pay Bork off in order to prevent him and his henchmen from murdering him. It's later when Dan buys a horse, for almost nothing, that by being its both trainer and jockey he can finally get back into action and throw races for Bork to bet knowing that he'll always be out of the money. That's until little Joe gets the winless horse, in having him become a jumper not runner, into tip top shape and in the winners circle!

Despite it's short duration, under 90 minutes, the movie drags at times in it's constantly focusing on Dan and Paule's relationship which comes across as phony as a three dollar bill. I couldn't for a moment believe that Paule would have anything to do with Dan not in that he was indirectly responsible for the murder of her boyfriend,and Dan's good friend, Claude but his shoddy treatment of her, until the last ten or so minutes, all throughout the film.

***SPOILERS*** It was in the end that Dan finally gets it all together in what turned out to be his final race, the 4 1/4 mile Steeplechase Classic Grand Prix, where he went all out to win, despite being threatened by Bork with death if he did, and redeemed himself; not only to Joe Paule and the racing public but him-crooked jockey Dan Butler-as well!

John Garfield who suffered from heart disease all his life was hospitalized during the filming of "Under My Skin" with a near fatal heart-attack that laid him up in bed for some three months. It was two years later that Garfield sadly passed away when his weak heart finally gave out-on May 21 1952-mostly due the pressures of the House UnAmerican committee's in hounding him literally into his grave for his involvement with Communist Front Groups. Political and society active groups That he, in not knowing that they were Communists, was an unwitting member of.

The champ

[dbdumonteil · 11 November 2010]

A career which began in 1937 and which is still buoyant today in 2010! Micheline Presles was one of the greatest French actresses of all time whose longevity is rivaled only but that of Danielle Darrieux.(both actresses were featured in the delightful comedy "Le Jour Des Rois" in the nineties).

Although she was fluent in English, she was not as lucky in her American movies : her work with Fritz Lang was downright disappointing and this one (ridiculous French title :" La Belle De Paris" !!!)is hardly better. However John Garfied is one of my favorite American actors (not a star,a true artist)and it's him and his co-star who give this parboiled melodrama substance ;the screenplay looks like a cross between "the champ " (thirties version ) and "the set up ", a jockey instead of a boxer.

The races take place in Chantilly and in Auteuil ,two racecourses (racetracks) famous here in France .Jean Negulesco shows respect for the audience :French people speak French between them and Presles begins to teach her first language to the jockey's son.She also sings songs in French and in English:I do not know if she was dubbed.

Considering the two leads' talent,"under my skin" is watchable but not particularly memorable.

Hemingway adaptation about an ex-pat jockey and son on the run . . . from themselves.

[maksquibs · 6/10 · 6 May 2007]

Though helmer Jean Negulesco was at his best making modestly budgeted work @ Warners in the '40s, he's best remembered for his travel-happy CinemaScope pics @ Fox in the '50s. (They're tremendous fun seen on a 'really big' screen.) But his earlier work for Fox gets lost in the shuffle, including this awkward version of an Ernest Hemingway story made with fellow Warner émigré, writer/producer Casey Robinson. It's an interesting film that doesn't quite work about an expatriate jockey (a haggard looking John Garfield) and his unhappy son who stay barely ahead of the gamblers & 'fixers' on the racing circuit. With neither the kid nor 'la femme' (a Paris café owner with a chip on her shoulder) supplying the expected warmth & interpersonal chemistry, the film can't decide whether it wants to play tough or sentimental, which gives the film a 'sec' quality you hardly expect from a set-up that's not too far from THE CHAMP. As a threatening mob type, Luther Adler steals all his scenes, just as he did three decades on doing similar duty in ABSENCE OF MALICE. And dig those crazy extras in the night club scenes. What's 'Daddy-O' in French?

Passable Late John Garfield Film

[dglink · 6/10 · 8 July 2020]

Based on Ernest Hemingway's short story, "My Old Man," the 1950 screen adaptation directed by Jean Negulesco, "Under My Skin," is a passably entertaining film; unfortunately, the film's prime asset, star John Garfield, made only two more movies after this before his early death at age 39. Garfield is widowed expatriate Dan Butler, a jockey with shady dealings and an unhealthy relationship with a corrupt gambler played by Luther Adler. Actually, Butler is not the nicest guy, and his relationships with his son and girlfriend are not healthy either. Garfield's physique does not make him physically convincing as a jockey, although his tough guy persona is ideal for the caddish part he plays. His rough and neglectful treatment of his son, Joe, is borderline abusive; he drags the kid through a life in hotels, leaves him alone and hungry, and pushes him away emotionally and physically. Butler's tough girlfriend, played by Micheline Presle, is overly tolerant of his loutish behavior; while inexplicably melting for Butler, Presle sings French ballads in a nightclub, which does little but further slow already slow scenes.

Filmed on the 20th Century Fox back lot, Negulesco over uses obvious rear projection and long shots of doubles on location to suggest the story is set in France, where Garfield, Presle, and Adler are definitely not; unfortunately, the efforts to fake Paris create an artificial backdrop to some unconvincing drama. The personal relationships also seem fake; Presle's tender feelings for Garfield in particular fail to convince, and the son, played by Orley Lindgren, has the looks and demeanor of having grown up with another father entirely. When Garfield utters "I love you," to Presle the phrase seems to have popped out of nowhere, and the son's persistent blindness to his father's faults strains credibility.

Despite his miscasting and difficulty expressing warmth, Garfield owns the film, and he is the primary reason to see it. The horse-racing scenes are fairly good, although Garfield's training of a difficult horse into a winner largely occurs off screen. Other than the racing, the pace is leisurely, and Adler and his henchmen bark softly and scuff up, rather than rough up. Despite the film's flaws, Garfield is always worth watching, and his unlikeable Dan Butler fits him well.

Not bad, not real good, but still worth watching!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 9 June 2018]

Songs by Alfred Newman (music) and Jacques Surmagne (lyrics) are "Viendras Tu Ce Soir" (Presle) and "La Seine" (Presle). Song by Alfred Newman (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics): "Stranger in the Night" (Presle). The 20th Century-Fox Studio Orchestra conducted by Alfred Newman. Producer: Casey Robinson. Copyright 17 March 1950 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 17 March 1950. U.S. release: March 1950. U.K. release: 5 June 1950. Australian release: 7 July 1950. 7,733 feet. 86 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Veteran jockey Dan Butler wins a steeplechase race in Italy, although he had arranged to throw it for racketeer Louis Bork. That night Bork's men rough up Dan, but the police arrive in time to prevent any real harm. Some days later, Dan and his young son, Joe, arrive in Paris to look up an old friend of Dan's. The friend, they learn, has died, but they meet his young widow, Paule. She tells Dan that her husband was killed because of the trouble Dan had brought him, and she asks him to leave. A few days pass, and Dan encounters Bork again. The crook tells Dan that he is still waiting for the money owed him on the race Dan failed to throw in Italy.

NOTES: A smidgin of trivia from Fox's desperate publicity department: "Studio accountant Albert Valentino, brother of Rudolph Valentino, helped Garfield with his Italian lines in this film."

English-language film debut of Micheline Presle.

COMMENT: This movie struck a chord neither with the critics nor the public. The critics - Hemingway fans to the man - objected to the way writer-producer Casey Robinson had expanded and redefined the original story by adding the Presle character and changing the ending. Sniffed Robert Hatch in The New Republic: "The movie is a sentimental tearjerker, a kind of literature to which Hemingway is not addicted."

His once clamorous public had still not forgiven Garfield for accepting a subsidiary role in Gentleman's Agreement, so the movie floundered at the box-office despite its many solidly entertaining qualities.

True, it opens most unpromisingly. But once you get past all the flag-waving paranoia of the earlier scenes (which can all be blamed on Robinson - jingoism was never one of Hemingway's vices) and if (a big "if") you can accept John Garfield as the decade's most unlikely looking jockey, this is a fairly entertaining racecourse romantic thriller with Luther Adler as an irredeemable villain and the charming Micheline Presle as the heroine.

Although a 2nd unit was sent to Italy and Paris, the studio inserts are disconcertingly obvious. A better attempt at integration is made with the climactic race, part of which was evidently staged for real.

My Old Man

[boblipton · 6/10 · 20 March 2023]

John Garfield is an American jockey in Europe. After he double-crosses Luther Adler and wins a race, he and his son, Orley Lindgren, flee north to Paris, where he meets Micheline Presle (who is still alive at the age of 100 as I write this). He likes her, she despises him, but they bond, somewhat, over the boy. But Adler follows them to Paris. He wants the money he lost on Garfield not throwing the race, and some more.

Based on the Hemingway story "My Old Man", it's standard Garfield noir for the period, but brightly lit by cinematographer Joseph Lashelle, whose crew shot the final steeplechase very well. Director Jean Negulesco gets some atmosphere in, largely thanks to second-unit shooting in Europe.

Fine Movie from the Prime of 20th Century-Fox

[vitaleralphlouis · 9/10 · 31 May 2008]

FOX had nothing but the finest talent in the 1940's and 1950's. This is a prime example in taking a Hemingway short story and expanding it to an 85 minute movie while still being faithful to the source.

John Garfield is very good as the American jockey stranded in post WWII Italy where he's raising his son and staying one jump ahead of his past. Lovely Micheline Prelle, who meets him in Paris, plays her role perfectly and will make us understand why women will go for a guy like Garfield and leave guys like you and me in the dust. (You, anyway!)

A strong plus is the look we get at Europe (mostly Paris) as it was 58 years ago. I've seen Paris many times, but it was more beautiful, more itself, less overrun with tourists, in 1964. Even more-so in 1950. One of the great benefits of old movies.

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

[clanciai · 10/10 · 25 November 2017]

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.

One of John's best

[vince-17 · 10/10 · 15 January 1999]

More proof that John Garfield was a vastly underrated actor,great story of jockey torn between easy money and the respect he risks from those who love him. It may shake your faith in racing industry but top notch cast makes it ring true.

Perfect animal movie

[mrdonleone · 9/10 · 27 March 2020]

Beautiful movie about horses and that magnificent, magnificent John Garfield; I can't get enough of it.