Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier who’s work Hitchcock once again favoured in order to make his first American movie: Rebecca, Jamaica Inn proves to be another classic within the Hitchcock repertoire. An enjoyable dose of action, threats, suspense, drama, and a few memorable twists in terms of plot and character, this movie suffices as a good way to take an hour and a half out of your day.
On the brutal and lawless coastline of Cornwall a gang of cutthroats and smugglers plan shipwrecks so they can plunder the boats and sell the goods, using the local inn as a headquarters. When a gang member’s wife’s niece comes to stay they must keep their operations hidden, but this task is made all the more difficult when it’s discovered that the law had made its way to this lawless part of the country and the corrupt functioning of the small community comes to light.
What Hitchcock achieves in this movie is the successful portrayal of the fickle human mind and character. Rather than focusing on huge twists of the plot, the pleasant surprise elements come in the form of characters’ actions that are contradicting to their pre-established characters. When these happen, it throws into sharp relief the cleverness of the director and writers. Many of the film’s central characters are portrayed in the violent and harsh light of buccaneers and villains so that when they do something relatively nice or even noble, it’s like receiving a shock of freezing water when you’re getting a bit dehydrated. It’s really very refreshing and nice.
The mixture of these two classes of people is something that I enjoyed too: to see the wealthy and higher class seamlessly mingling with the lower and relatively savage and dirty working class takes the film to another level of enjoyment.
We’ve got some effective slide-in scene changes, something we’ve not really seen in Hitchcock’s films before and then there are the signature scenes of simplicity hinting at something noble or sinister having just taken place. Hitchcock’s full frame shots of a character frozen in shock or hope or wonder bring a further level of suspense and drama into the mix and that’s always good to see.
Starring Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Maureen O’Hara, Emlyn Williams, Leslie Banks, Marie Ney, and Edwin Greenwood, Jamaica Inn is another enjoyable classic from one of my all-time favourite filmmakers. Filled with action, violence, drama, corruption, and suspense, I thoroughly enjoyed it; it was a fine way to start a sunny Wednesday.
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