James Garner and Louis Gossett, Jr. are con men in the 1850s in the western comedy Skin Game. Garner is Quincy Drew and Gossett is Jason O’Rourke, and they have a scam wherein Gossett pretends to be a slave and Garner sells him to the highest bidder. Gossett then proceeds to escape, and the two men split the proceeds from the sale. They are quite successful until they run into Ed Asner’s character, Plunkett, a slave trader who wishes to keep Gossett in shackles. What could be a tasteless comedy is handled with relative aplomb by director Paul Bogart, a successful television director, here making his third feature film. Garner and Gossett also help put across the outre subject matter, with their undeniable affability and strong on screen camaraderie.
