Jamaica Inn (1939)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1939
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, Topaz, Iron Curtain)
	Actors: Maureen O'Hara, Robert Newton, Charles Laughton
	Country: GB
	Genre: Drama, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 05.08.2014, DVD, 11" computer screen
Synopsis: In Cornwall, around 1800, a young woman discovers that she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.
Review: The image and sound quality are very poor on this DVD I bought for 50 cents at a flee market. Nevertheless I was curious to see some of the oldest work by Alfred Hitchcock after the reviews of The Man Who Knew too Much, Blackmail or Saboteur. The story of Jamaica Inn is quite original and from another time. Indeed I don't often watch movies about bandits of the early 19th century! You can recognize the touch of the Master of Suspense in the way the relationship between the characters is told, and the slow evolution of characters who are not what they seem. The movie is relatively easy to watch in spite of its old age, I think mainly thanks to a discreet or absent music, contrary to a cumbersome score that disturbed me in Saboteur. The classic romantic couple of hero/heroin is a bit too obvious, but thankfully some other characters are more interesting, like the criminal mastermind played by Charles Laughton.
Rating: 5 /10