Jamaica Inn

Adventures in 1820 Cornwall   December 19, 2007
The poor residents along the Cornish coast would benefit from the flotsam and jetsam that washed ashore from shipwrecks. Sometimes beacon lights would be fixed to draw a ship to wreckage upon the rocks. There were never any survivors to these planned wrecks. One happy laborer whistles while he works. A coach does not excel in customer service. A young woman May is going to her relatives who own Jamaica Inn. We soon learn about Sir Humphrey and his connection to the gang at Jamaica Inn. May hears and sees what they are doing! May saves Trehearne and they escape together. [This is a common theme in Hitchcock's films.]

Sir Humphrey dispenses the law in these parts. Trehearne's discloses his identity to Sir Humphrey, and they go to search Jamaica Inn. But the gang surprises and overpowers them. Will the hero escape from his captivity? Will the wreckers be frustrated in their crimes? Will the evil villain be brought to justice? Soldiers arrive to capture the gang. There is a dramatic ending to this story, which was adapted from a Daphne Du Maurier novel.

One advantage of this film is the demonstration on how to load a flintlock pistol. Hitchcock's films often used an authority figure as the villain. His films were improved after he moved to Hollywood and got a bigger budget.

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"What are you all waiting for? A spectacle? You shall have it and tell your children how the great age ended."   August 17, 2007
JAMAICA INN is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and co-produced by Charles Laughton. Set in 1820s Cornwall, JAMAICA INN is the story about a young Irish orphan, Mary (Maureen O'Hara), who travels to England to live with her last living relative, her aunt Patience (Marie Ney). Mary soon discovers that Patience's husband, Joss (Leslie Banks), is the leader of a gang that has been leading ships to wreck on the coast, smuggling the goods, and killing any survivors. Mary seeks help from the local squire, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton), but the squire might not be the friendly neighborhood law enforcer that he presumes to be.

JAMAICA INN was the first movie Hitchcock directed based on a story written by Daphne Du Marier and out of the three it is the weakest. The plot is rather predictable and much of the acting is overdone. Apparently there was a great deal of tension on the set between Hitchcock, the director, and Laughton, the co-producer and star of the film. Hitchcock wasn't given the full control he normally had and was unable to keep Laughton in check. Still, JAMAICA INN is a Hitchcock film and though it doesn't reach the heights of his greatest films, it's still better than the average film from the period as well as most films made today.

Besides being a Hitchcock movie, JAMAICA INN is notable for several reasons. To begin with, the movie was one of only a few films in which Hitchcock directed where he did not make a cameo. It was also his last film that he directed in England before coming to Hollywood under contract to David O. Selanick. Lastly, the movie marks the big screen debut of Maureen O'Hara.

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What was good has passed away a lot (1 of 1 Found this Helpful)   June 10, 2007
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

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"That place - Jamaica Inn. It's got a bad name. It's not healthy, that's why", (1 of 1 Found this Helpful)   April 19, 2007

"Jamaica Inn" (1939) is remarkable in many ways as almost every movie directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock. It was the last movie he directed in England before he moved to Hollywood. It was his first screen adaptation of the book by Daphne Du Maurier - his next movie, the Oscar winning "Rebecca" is also based on Du Maurier's novel as well as the later "The Birds" (1963). "Jamaica Inn" introduced 18 years old Maureen O'Hara in her first starring role as Mary, a young orphan girl who arrives to stay with her aunt at the inn located at England's Cornish coast around 1820 to quickly find out that the inn is a headquarters of the of the pirate band. Finally, "Jamaica Inn" was the first collaboration of two cinema giants, Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton. While "Jamaica Inn" may be not the best or most memorable Hitchcock's film, nobody would argue that Laughton, a performer of an incredible range stole the movie as Sir Humphrey Pengallon in the performance that mixes "elegant grossness, gallant and sardonic, pure madness, and certain grandeur to his defiance".

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Perhaps Atypical but Entertaining Hitchcock Film (2 of 2 Found this Helpful)   March 7, 2007
JAMAICA INN from 1939 was Alfred Hitchcock's last directorial effort from his "British Period" before coming to America to direct REBECCA for David O. Selznick. Interestingly both films are based on Daphne Du Maurier novels. A costume period piece JAMAICA INN attracted Hitchcock because of the Du Maurier angle which would prep him for REBECCA. Alfred Hitchcock was never enamored with costume pieces as he latter admitted to François Truffaut in their famous discussions when refereeing to his ill made choice to direct UNDER CAPRICORN.

Sidney Gilliat and Joan Harrison's screenplay based on Du Maurier's novel seems more conventional and less gothic, if that is an appropriate categorization, than Du Maurier's protraction of her story. This straight forward approach seems to work well for Maureen O'Hara, Charles Laughton and Robert Newton and their roles making the film more intriguing and beguiling and less atmospheric. In all this is a thoroughly entertaining film if somewhat atypical Hitchcock.

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