The Great Game

1931-02-23
Sound
79m

Reserve player overcomes the odds to win the heart of a fair lady... and the FA Cup final in this early footie feature.

Never mind the token love affair between Stockford's young centre forward (a rather unconvincing John Batten) and the coach's daughter (Renee Clama) - this early talkie is a footie film for the genuine fan. The plotline around a bullish chairman intent on buying success vs a coach preferring to nurture in-house talent will resonate with today's fans, but it's the locker room scenes that really stand out. A supporting cast made up of footballing stars - from teams including Chelsea, Arsenal and Birmingham, no less - ensures a real sense of authenticity.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.