If you're not familiar with "Jamaica Inn", there's a very good reason: it's one of Alfred Hitchcock's rare misfires as a director. Despite a top-drawer cast, director and author (Daphne DuMaurier of "Rebecca" fame), this melodrama is alternately logy and overblown. Even Charles Laughton, whose splendid hamminess has saved many a film, seems out of place. With his garish makeup and eccentric characterization, he appears to be a Dickens character in search of a good Dickens film in which to play! Hitchcock does achieve some characteristically good visuals, in spite of the studio sets, but lacks his usual control over the story. The film is notable for two performances: that of the radiant Maureen O'Hara (in her first British film) and Robert Newton, who, amazingly for the screen's definitive Long John Silver, plays the leading-man role and gives perhaps the most understated performance in the film!!
Review of Jamaica Inn
