| A stiff adventure from director Alfred
Hitchcock, Jamaica Inn fails to involve the viewer in either the story. Characters
with no history are presented without depth. There are poor hints at what make them click,
thereby making their actions less than satisfying. The movie presents the shavings of the
Daphne DuMaurier novel. And dont expect any great Hitchcockian touches to save this
heavy action drama from drowning in its own waters.
The waters along Cornwall on
the English coast present rough traveling for ships. Night navigation depends on the
warning beacons along the shore. An unscrupulous gang of down and dirty roughnecks is
luring the ships into the rocks, dispatching the crews without mercy and plundering rich
cargoes. Led by the imposing Joss Merlyn, the thieves den explodes when a newcomer
suggests that the loot is not being distributed fairly. Meanwhile, Merlyns niece,
Mary Yelland arrives from Ireland just in time to save the day for Jim Trehearne as Merlyn
turns the gang against this newcomer. Behind the scenes effete Sir Humphrey Pengallen
looms larger than life in a manor house casting a shadow on the nearby inn run by Merlyn.