Grade: C
Synopsis: In early 19th century England, a young woman (Maureen O’Hara) comes to live with her uncle, whom she soon discovers is in league with a group of criminals who raid ships that wreck on the nearby coast.
Jamaica Inn is an interesting Hitchcock film, mainly because it doesn’t feel like a Hitchcock film. It veers from pirate movie to horror to mystery to adventure before settling on odd drama, a roller coaster of styles that ultimately undoes the film.
The performances are fine all round –with Charles Laughton in particular chewing the scenery in his usual entertaining manner– but without a consistent theme behind them, they can sometimes seem off. Maureen O’Hara is perhaps the biggest victim of this, as she’s a refined damsel in her early scenes where the movie is veering to horror and echoing, of all things, Dracula (1931), but fifteen minutes later the same refined damsel is shrewdly cutting a man from a makeshift gallows.
Still, even with its flaws, Jamaica Inn is an entertaining film, but I can’t help but wonder what Hitchcock would have done with the material had he made the film later in his career.
Bottom Line: Worth it as a curiosity for Hitchcock fans, others can skip it.
