Jamaica Inn

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: October 13, 1939

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

52	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Jonathan Rosenbaum

By common consent, this is 1939 drama is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s poorest and least personal works, though it has some compensations. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Hitchcock adapts another Daphne Du Maurier novel -- a tale of pirates and distressed damsels on the Cornish coast -- with less memorable results than either "Rebecca" or "The Birds." But Charles Laughton is a nicely nasty two-faced villain and Maureen O'Hara a staunch heroine. [18 Jun 2000, p.22]

ColliderJeremy Urquhart

Charles Laughton hams it up wonderfully in a villainous role, and Jamaica Inn is enough of an oddity to make it strangely engaging throughout much of its runtime. Read full review

Wesley Stenzel

The film looks decent, though not as striking as any of Hitchcock's prior sound films. Read full review

Movie NationRoger Moore

This adaptation doesn’t entirely founder on the rocks. But the viewer is a couple of steps ahead of the action, start to finish. The innocents take forever to figure out the obvious. Read full review

Clayton Dillard

Alfred Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn would have been better titled The Gangs of Jamaica Inn, since the film is thoroughly concerned with groupings, allegiances, and the ways class standing relates to moral obligation. Read full review

Craig J. Clark

With Hitchcock halfway out the door, Jamaica Inn could have come across as strictly a work-for-hire gig, but it displays enough Hitchcockery to show he wasn’t as disengaged from the material as he would later claim he was. Read full review

Frank S. Nugent

Jamaica Inn will not be remembered as a Hitchcock picture, but as a Charles Laughton picture. Read full review

Pauline Kael

A forgettable, generally forgotten Hitchcock gothic, from a Daphne du Maurier novel, full of Cornwall shipwrecks and smuggling and murder in the time of good King George IV.

The TelegraphStaff (Not Credited)

Daphne du Maurier's rum tale of romance, ripping bodices and roguery was rewritten for this so-so Alfred Hitchcock screen version to accommodate the demands of its star and co-producer Charles Laughton, who felt himself deserving of a grander role than any du Maurier had deigned to write. [30 Mar 2019, p.33]

Staff (Not Credited)

While the star himself effortlessly commands attention, the film around him too often collapses in a welter of rhubarbing locals, piffling model work, and the most cardboard sets Elstree could offer. The result is weird, but not wonderful. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

JAMAICA INN had many interesting incidents associated with it. Unfortunately, very little of that interest reached the screen. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Superb direction, excellent casting, expressive playing and fine production offset an uneven screenplay to make Jamaica Inn a gripping version of the Daphne du Maurier novel. Read full review