The Great Game (1930) Review: Mud, Baggy Shorts, and a Baby-Faced Rex Harrison

If you are looking for a slick sports movie with high-def slow motion, you are going to be very disappointed. ⚽️

The Great Game is for people who want to see what football looked like when the balls were made of heavy leather and the pitches were basically swamps.

Anyone who hates old, crackly movies from the early sound era should probably stay far away from this one.

It’s 1930, and you can really tell the actors are still figuring out how to talk and move at the same time. It feels a bit like The Mystery of Room 13 in that way—just a bit stiff around the edges.

John Batten plays Dicky Brown, and he has that very specific 1930s 'earnest' look. He's an aspiring footballer for a fictional club called Manningford FC.

The plot is about as thin as a wafer. Dicky wants to play, Dicky likes the chairman's daughter, Dicky wants to win the Cup.

It’s predictable. But the real reason to watch this is for the actual football footage.

They used real players like Billy Blyth and Jack Cock. You can see them running around in these massive, baggy shorts that look like they’d fall off if they ran too fast.

The crowd scenes are actually pretty great. There is a raw energy to the fans in the stands that you don't always get in modern movies.

There is one shot of a goalkeeper diving that looks genuinely painful. No padding back then, just pure grit and probably a lot of mud in the eyes.

I noticed Rex Harrison pops up in a very small role. He looks like a literal child here.

It is wild to see him so young before he became a massive star. He doesn't do much, but his presence is a fun little 'easter egg' for film nerds.

The romance side of things is pretty boring honsetly. Dicky and the chairman’s daughter have about as much chemistry as two wet paper towels.

But the movie gets noticeably better whenever they get out of the drawing rooms and onto the grass.

The sound is a bit of a mess. It crackles like someone is frying bacon in the background during the quiet scenes.

Sometimes a line of dialogue just drops off. Or someone sounds like they are talking into a tin can from across the street.

It has that same low-budget struggle feel you find in The Air Derby. You can tell they were just happy the equipment was working at all.

One scene lingers on a guy smoking a pipe for what feels like three minutes. It adds nothing to the plot, but I kind of liked the vibe.

It feels like someone just pointed a camera at a real day in 1930 and forgot to turn it off. 🎞️

Is it a masterpiece? No way.

But as a time capsule for football fans? It is kind of essential.

You get to see the game before it became a multi-billion dollar industry. Back when it was just guys in heavy boots kicking a ball in the rain.

It’s short, it’s a bit clunky, and the ending is exactly what you think it is. But I didn't mind the stay.