If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

James Garner does his Maverick/Rockford type character pretty, well,as he is wont to do. And it was fun to such a young Lou Gossett, Jr. The rest of the cast was okay, including Ed Asner as a slave merchant. But one of the biggest problems is this. They are trying to be funny against the backdrop of slavery. Now, I am a white Southerner, not at all liberal, but the race slavery in this film is portrayed honestly enough to show its fundamental evil. Slavery was a moral abomination, and more importantly (in this context) not at all funny. And juxtaposing hijinks on top of it was just a bit jarring. I guess it takes a more deft touch than these filmmakers possessed.

I hadn't seen this film in years, perhaps since its theatrical run. It's still funny as hell and makes its serious points surprisingly well, especially since it's been 40 years (!) and social norms and rules have changed. This kind of role is undoubtedly what Garner did best, and he knew it. He left quite a legacy of performances like this. The film's ending is realistic (I wondered how they were going to squirm out of the circumstances.) Gossett's brief speech to Garner about them not being brothers ("I can be bought and sold like a horse, and you can do the buying and selling") rang true and put a much-needed limit on the film's levity. The supporting cast was good (What ever happened to Susan Clark?) and much of the dialogue sparkles. The subplot between Gossett and his young "bride" felt a bit forced and stilted, but on the whole this film straddles the gap between comedy, American history lesson and social commentary with grace.

Though highly rated in the Leonard Maltin Film Guide, this comic Western isn't as popular as star James Garner's two other genre spoofs – Burt Kennedy's SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF (1969) and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER (1971) – but it's very much in the same vein.For the record, Garner had earlier collaborated with Paul Bogart (even if Gordon Douglas seems to have been involved as well at some point) on MARLOWE (1969), a failed attempt at a noir revival (and on which I'm kind of lukewarm myself); incidentally, I've just taped another thriller by this director – MR. RICCO (1975), starring Dean Martin – off TCM U.K. Anyway, while I was disappointed that the version I acquired of SKIN GAME was panned-and-scanned, I was glad to have caught up with it, as the film proved ideal lightweight/entertaining fare for the Christmas season; the same is true of the film I followed it with – coincidentally another Western comedy revolving around sparring partners, Texas ACROSS THE RIVER (1966), with Dean Martin himself and Alain Delon.This, in fact, has con-men Garner and Lou Gossett Jr. cleaning up small towns by having the two posing as master and slave – with the former purporting to sell the latter to the highest bidder and then have the black man run away to rejoin his pal (who, by this time, has already left)! This ruse has been kept up for quite some time (as seen in flashback) and it's garnered {sic} the duo a fair sum of money; however, things take a different turn when they run in, first, real slaves (which causes Gossett, born a free man, to rethink his situation) and, then, another con artist in Susan Clark (who targets Garner himself). Gossett even falls for a black girl who's to be sold at auction (where he too will be present) – so he asks Garner to buy her out of his share of the money…but the whole elaborate scheme is interrupted by the arrival of notorious anti-slavery crusader John Brown (played by Royal Dano)! Furthermore, after Garner and Gossett make the mistake of returning to one of the towns they had already 'hit', the former lands in jail and the latter (along with his lady friend) is sold off as a slave for real by unscrupulous dealer Edward Asner to despotic Southerner Andrew Duggan. Surprisingly sprung from jail by Clark herself, Garner determines to save his ex-partner: they too take up disguise, this time as preacher and nurse, and start visiting Asner's clients one by one claiming a slave of theirs is actually a leper! By the time they reach Duggan's mansion, Gossett has befriended (or, rather, learned to control via his spouting of mumbo-jumbo!) a group of African slaves who subsequently go along with them when our heroes, with their respective women in tow, take off for Mexico. Incidentally, this sequence also contains the film's biggest laugh-out-loud moment as Gossett, all dressed up to wait at the family table, is fondled by one of Duggan's pubescent daughters – causing him to jump and drop the contents of his bowl! While, as I said, the quality of the film's widescreen photography is somewhat compromised by the altered aspect ratio in this presentation (culled from a TV screening), David Shire's fine score retains all of its original impact – incidentally, being remarkably somber, it effectively counterpoints the breeziness generally on display.

And Lou Gossett with hair - Wow! But this comedy has a heavy load to carry, dealing with slavery & it's human cost. It's not much of a comedy when Jason actually gets sold into slavery and Gossett conveys the desperation very well. It does have it's light moments and Susan Clark helps lighten the load. I rated it an 8.