Movie Review – Jamaica Inn (1939)
Principal Cast : Charles Laughton, Leslie Banks, Maureen O’Hara, Robert Newton, Marie Ney, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie, Frederick Piper, Herbert Lomas, Clare Greet, William Devlin, Emlyn Williams, Jeanne de Casalis, Mabel Terry-Lewis, A Bromley Davenport, George Curzon, Basil Radford, Wylie Watson, Morland Graham, Edwin Greenwood, Mervyn Johns, Stephen Haggard.
Synopsis: In Cornwall, 1819, a young woman discovers she’s living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.
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Jamaica? No, she came willingly!
At no point in Hitchcock’s breezy seaside thriller does anyone make a joke about the Caribbean country, which disappointed me—so the film automatically loses points. Jamaica Inn, Hitchcock’s final film before departing England to fulfil his Hollywood contract, is a slight dramatic piece that lacks much tension, content instead to coast on three key elements that work superbly: the enigmatic, rubber-faced performance of Charles Laughton, the dazzling beauty of Maureen O’Hara—who would find Oscar glory a decade later in Gone With The Wind—and the remarkably effective visual effects Hitchcock employs throughout this dark, brooding evocation of 19th-century piracy. The first of three Hitchcock adaptations of Daphne du Maurier’s work (followed by the Best Picture-winning Rebecca and the all-time classic The Birds), Jamaica Inn is both gleefully silly and patently absurd in the best and worst ways. Although often derided by Hitchcock fans and regarded as a “lesser” film in his oeuvre, I found plenty to appreciate and enjoy—despite some significant flaws.
Plot synopsis courtesy Wikipedia: Set in 19th-century Cornwall, Jamaica Inn follows young Mary Yellan (Maureen O’Hara), who arrives at the eponymous inn run by her aunt Patience (Marie Ney) and her cruel, domineering husband, Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks). Unbeknownst to Mary, the inn is a front for a gang of ruthless wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the rocky coast to loot their cargo. As Mary uncovers their nefarious activities, she finds an unlikely ally in the enigmatic Jem Trehearne (Robert Newton), an undercover law officer. However, the true mastermind behind the wreckers is the seemingly respectable squire, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton), whose sinister intentions soon come to light. Caught in a web of deceit and danger, Mary must fight for survival and justice against the stormy Cornish coastline.
Jamaica Inn is a pretty silly film in most respects. Produced by Laughton himself, the Oscar-winner’s performance as the duplicitous Pengallan is one of the film’s highlights. Despite his campy theatrics and penchant for mugging contortively (and constantly), he delivers a role worth the price of admission alone. The screenplay attempts to bolster his character with additional material, but one crucial misstep undermines the film: Pengallan’s double nature is revealed far too early. This robs the third act of what could have been a game-changing twist, turning an also-ran into a potential winner. Laughton, sporting some dubious facial prosthetics to enhance his forehead and windswept hairpiece, chews the scenery with abandon, while Hitchcock does his best to rein him in alongside an otherwise straight-laced ensemble.
Maureen O’Hara, alternately ice-cold and doe-eyed, holds much of the film’s pacing and dramatic urgency together. It’s easy to see why Hitchcock enjoyed having her in front of the camera. She would soon depart for America with Laughton to appear in The Hunchback of Notre Dame later that same year, launching a long and successful Hollywood career. She’s ably supported by Robert Newton’s Jem Trehearne, although his role feels somewhat thankless—never quite the dashing romantic lead, constantly overshadowed by Laughton’s flamboyant antics. Leslie Banks and Marie Ney relish their roles as Mary’s uncle and aunt, their performances injecting the film with energy even as the script twists itself in knots to keep them relevant. A gang of scoundrels rounds out the supporting cast as Joss’ wreckers, providing some enjoyable moments amid the film’s more melodramatic beats.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Jamaica Inn is its production design. Despite the scattered plot and its relentless pacing, the film’s atmosphere is superb. The opening shipwreck sequence, in which a storm-battered vessel crashes against the jagged coast, is a stunningly crafted set piece. The use of models, matte paintings, and enormous studio-bound sets creates an impressive illusion of scale and spectacle. It’s a delightful throwback to classic “Old Hollywood” production values, lending the film a grandiosity that compensates for its narrative shortcomings. Cinematographers Bernard Knowles and Harry Stradling make excellent use of lighting, shadow, and composition to heighten the drama, ensuring the film looks every bit as Hitchcockian as one might expect—even if the story and characters don’t quite measure up.
The biggest issue with Jamaica Inn is its uneven tone. Laughton treats it as a theatrical romp, while O’Hara, Banks, and Newton play it as straight as possible. Horace Hodges, as Pengallan’s long-suffering butler Chadwick (I can practically hear the exasperated cries even now), delivers a delightfully droll performance, but the film never quite finds its footing between suspense and camp. It’s neither thrilling enough to engage the intellect nor humorous enough to be a full-blown farce, leaving it stranded somewhere in between. There’s an Oliver Twist-like quality to parts of the film, though probably not the effect Hitchcock intended. Even at its weakest, however, Jamaica Inn remains oddly entertaining—if only for the sheer spectacle of Laughton’s performance and the film’s striking visual design.
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