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Jamaica Inn [1939]
![Jamaica Inn [1939]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5156H5XJDSL._SL160_.jpg)
An innocent young orphan (the 19-year-old Maureen O'Hara in her first starring role) arrives at her uncle's remote Cornish inn to find it a den of reprobates given to smuggling, wrecking and gross overacting. They're all out-hammed, though, by Laughton at his most corseted and outrageously self-indulgent as the local squire to whom Maureen runs for help. Since his star was also the co-producer, Hitch couldn't do much with the temperamental actor. He contented himself with adding a few characteristic touches--including a spot of bondage (always a Hitchcock favourite), and the chief villain's final spectacular plunge from a high place--and slyly sending up the melodramatic absurdities of the plot. Jamaica Inn hardly stands high in the Master's canon, but it trundles along divertingly enough. Hitchcock fanatics will have fun comparing it with his two subsequent--and far more accomplished--Du Maurier adaptations, Rebecca and The Birds. --Philip Kemp
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
It's generally acknowledged that the Master of Suspense disliked costume dramas and Jamaica Inn--a rip-roaring melodrama drawn from a Daphne du Maurier pot-boiler, set in 1820s Cornwall--is about as costumed as they come. So what was he doing directing it? Killing time, essentially. In 1939 Hitchcock was due to leave Britain for Hollywood, but delays Stateside left him with time on his hands. Never one to sit idle, he agreed to make one picture for Mayflower Productions, a new outfit formed by actor Charles Laughton and émigré German producer Erich Pommer.
That's women for you - save your life one minute, frightened of you the next
Review date: 2008-08-31 Rating: 6 out of 10
It's a film Hitchcock had no real afinity for, and it was largely out of frustration that he agreed to direct it. It was a torturous production (one member of the supporting cast died prematurely shortly after the film, with producer Sidney Gilliat blaming his demise on the fact the actors were required to do numerous takes in the middle of rolling wind and wave machines; removing the clergyman of the book as the villian disregarded the whole point of the novel itself; Charles Laughton's method acting (a process which Hitchcock declared "Laughton versus Laughton) and by rights shouldn't be much cop at all.
Yet whilst ultimately nothing more than a trivial piece of fluff there are a number of things to commend about Jamaica Inn. Maureen O'Hara, as Mary Yellen, gives a fiesty performance, ably supported by Leslie Banks and Marie Ney as her Uncle and Aunt and whilst little is done with them in the final analysis, there are laughs to be had with the army of pirates.
Charles Laughton, never knowingly understated, is as entertaining as ever (if you can stand him that is) and whilst the film lacks the depth and excellence that you would normally associate with a Hitchcock movie, it has to be said that for an hour and a half of your life, it never fails to rattle along and it more than keeps you entertained. Which doesn't make it a great Hitchcock film, but does, on balance, make it worth at least one viewing.
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Reviews
Connoisseurs of ripe acting may enjoy this one. Laughton outdoes Laughton as Sir Humphrey Pengallan
Review date: 2007-06-19 Rating: 8 out of 10
If sinking your teeth into over-ripe fruit is one of your pleasures, then Jamaica Inn should be your dish. It features one of the ripest and most ludicrous performances I've ever seen from Charles Laughton as Sir Humphrey Pengallan, and that covers a lot of territory. As the squire who is the full-figured mastermind behind a gang of murderous wreckers on the Cornish coast, Laughton sports the latest dandyish fashions, a false nose, false eyebrows which almost have lives of their own, a carefully coifed comb-over, a piggish over-bite and line readings that would make Bette Davis at her most mannered envious. Close behind in the ripe playing sweepstakes is Robert Newton as Jem Trehearne, law officer and hero, who roles his eyes almost as much as Laughton, and Leslie Banks as Joss Merlyn, the leader of the gang and the owner of Jamaica Inn. The only person who manages reasonably well is Maureen O'Hara who plays Mary, the plucky and beautiful niece of Merlyn's wife. Even she is largely confined to earnestly crying out for decency and screaming.
Don't get me wrong. Jamaica Inn is so over-the-top it's a delight to watch, especially when Laughton is chewing the scenery. Hitchcock, making his last movie in England before leaving for the United States, supposedly became so bored during filming that he didn't care what the actors did. The story is a bodice-ripper by Daphne de Maurier; in fact, Maureen O'Hara's bodice gets ripped not once but twice. The time is about 1800. The place is Cornwall on the rocky coast. Jamaica Inn is a stone hulk of a building close by the warning light that shows ships where to avoid the rocks in the stormy seas. Someone with advance knowledge of ships with rich cargos has been blocking the warning light. When the ships founder, wreckers work their way to the ships, slaughter all the sailors and take the cargo. Merlyn and his gang are the heavies, but who is the mastermind? Then young Mary, whose parents have died, shows up late one night at Jamaica Inn's doorstep to be taken in my her aunt, Merlyn's wife. At the same time we learn that the gang has a ringer in its midst, an officer of the law determined to bring justice to Cornwall and identify the mastermind. We also learn (this is no spoiler; we find out very early in the movie) that the mastermind is the effete, mannered Sir Humphrey. It all comes together with madness and murder on the wind, switching from Jamaica Inn and the rain-swept coast to Sir Henry's elegant mansion and his imperious demands. "Listen Merlyn," Sir Humphrey says, "I want money. I know what to do with money when I have it which is why I must have it. Do you understand? I must have it!"
The movie looks great. There are crashing seas, stormy nights and coaches drawn by galloping horses. Jamaica Inn itself has that detailed, threatening look that Hitchcock achieved with the wind mill in Foreign Correspondent. Stone stairways go up and down, nothing fits well, shutters rattle in the wind. The scenery chewing isn't confined to the leads, either. The gang members get their moments, too, especially Emlyn Williams as Harry, an invariably cheery and dirty young man with a knife. The movie rises or falls, however, not on Hitchcock but on Laughton...and Laughton is so ripe he's spellbinding. You have to see him to appreciate his way with these words, spoken to a bound and gagged Mary, "We may be going a long way, you know. Nearer the sun, of course...the Isles of Greece. You're thinking that'll cost money, but I have enough. One must have enough. I always knew that to live like a gentleman, spaciously and with elegance, one must have money...and a few beautiful possessions, of course, like you, my deah." Sir Humphrey's last words bring the movie to a satisfyingly ornate ending: "Make way for Pengallan!"
The movie is in the public domain and there is no good DVD transfer. In addition, some editions have an 8-minute scene missing about 50 minutes into the movie. Look for a run time of approximately 98 minutes.
Great!
Review date: 2007-06-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
I don't understand other reviewers, this film is fantastic! As usual Hitchcock takes a Du Maurier novel and revises it for his own means. Jamaica Inn is a fabulous tale of treachery and deceit and rewards repeat watching. It always makes me wince when people say that the likes of The Trouble With Harry, Torn Curtain or even the awful Topaz are better. Nonsense. It may not be typical Hitchcock but it shot very well, it has tension, it has action, romance and the story is very engaging. I honestly wouldn't give this film praise if it didn't deserve it as I'm normally quite critical but this film is a forgotten gem. **Get it or rent it and revel in a swashbuckling tale that will chill you to the bone**
Magic and yet kind of loose
Review date: 2007-06-09 Rating: 8 out of 10
These films of the 1930s, 1939 in this case, are amazing. Simple acting, yet still quite inspired by silent movies technique. Very simple setting not cluttered with too many useless props and other decorations. The dialogue is necessarily simple and the voice work is a caricature of dramatic speech. It was all recorded directly when the film was shot on a sound stage most of the time and the microphones were still very primitive. So what could you expect? No integrated music, no sound effects or very poor ones, no visual effects of course with most of the time sedentary cameras. And the lighting was still far from particularly brilliant. And yet these films were magic because they did not even try to look real, realistic. They had to work the way the technique dictated it. Then the rest was compensated and supplemented by the imagination of the audience. And the zippers in the backs of the monsters were not bothering anyone at the time since it was such a marvelous improvement to have the puppets on the screen speak in real voices. It is amazing to see such an old film by Hitchcock. He was already a great director who could get some real gripping action or situations even with all the shortcomings of his equipment. We have to watch them again these old films, these first talkies, to ,be able to appreciate what modern films have to offer but also what we have lost along the way, a lot more than we may think, and particularly the magic of black and white illusion. But we can't be and have been at once, that's obvious. So let us be living in our time and nostalgically revisit the past.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Don't go there !!!
Review date: 2007-04-24 Rating: 2 out of 10
I hated this with a passion. The worst film I have seen in a very long time. Very little chracter similarity to the Du Maurier novel, which I found disappointing. In addition to this, Charles Laughton, never one of my favourite actors, ia absolutely dreadful as Squire Pengallan (who does not feature in the actual book). Definitely not a hitchcock masterpiece. I think he must have washed his hands of producing a decent movie long before the final take. Maureen O Hara should have been given a chance to explore the character of Mary Yellan more fully, and Charles Laughton should have been sent home and his character re-cast with an actor who could portray the character with more menace and less annoying pomposity.
All in all, this film was a disappointment.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Maureen O'Hara
Hay Petrie
Charles Laughton
Robert Newton
Horace Hodges
Creators:
Maureen O'Hara (Primary Contributor)
Robert Newton (Primary Contributor)
Charles Laughton (Producer)
Bernard Knowles (Cinematographer)
Erich Pommer (Producer)
Daphne Du Maurier (Writer)
J.B. Priestley (Writer)
Joan Harrison (Writer)
Sidney Gilliat (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: ITV DVD
Manufacturer: ITV DVD
EAN: 5037115050939
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2003-07-07
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1939-10-13
Language: English (Original Language)