Under My Skin

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

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.

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.

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.

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.