Jamaica Inn - Movie Review

Jamaica Inn - Hitchcock

Last night we watched the movie Jamaica Inn via our Roku and the Pub-D-Hub channel. The print on Pub-D-Hub is quite good with decent sound quality. This 1939 film has a great cast including Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, who appears in her first major film role.

The first part of the movie is a bit dark and dirty, and most of the characters are unlikable pirates and cut throats who live on the stormy Cornish cost of England. However, the second half of the picture moves more swiftly with characters to root for, as hidden identities are revealed.

While not known as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films I think it's worth watching. Fans of Hitchcock will cite the behind the screen meddling done by co-producer Charles Laughton as likely the cause of the films uneven tone and sense of suspense. Laughton demanded many changes to the script and played the character of squire Pengallan as he wished. Still, time has proven Charles Laughton right for insistence that Hitchcock cast Maureen O'Hara, in-spite of her lackluster screen test.