"Rebecca" and "My Cousin Rachel" it is not

I really wanted to like Jamaica Inn, considering that: 1) its Hitch; and 2) the source material is Daphne DuMarier. But, sadly, my second time watching this, Hitch's "last British film" my main reaction was Meh.

I guess I am not as much of a Film Classics expert as i would like to think myself. This is considered by many to be a Classic, and I guess if you really watch a lot of British films from the 30s and 40s, the over-acting and excessively stylized lighting, etc. makes sense. But, after just watching Hitchcock's next DuMarier entrant, Rebecca, and also the under-appreciated My Cousin Rachel i couldn't help but wonder what all the fuss is about Jamaica Inn.

I mean it is good, even great in some places. But, it is also kind of strange. I spent some time with the Criterion Collection DVD Extras for Rebecca, and learned that there was quite a lot of friction between David O. Selznick and Hitch over the initial treatment for Rebecca. Apparently Hitch and his writers wanted to do a lot of free adaptation, including having the opening scene take place on an ocean liner, where "I" and DeWinter actually meet before they spend time in Monte Carlo.

Maybe that explains what is going on here, where a pretty creepy, Gothic story about murderous "ship wreckers" on the Cornish coast is given touches of almost comic relief. The inimitable Charles Laughton, who could play comedy and drama equally deftly, seems to not be sure whether his Squire is a buffoon, or a murderous rich man. One of the early scenes in his dining hall plays like a combination of Downton Abbey and the Mira Nair Vanity Fair. And either the actor playing the "quasi-evil" (to coin a phrase) Jess doesn't seem to know whether to play the character slightly insane, or that was how the character was written. I haven't read the book, so I don't know.

The one really solid, positive point for Jamaica is the great Maureen O'Hara who, here is in her debut role, if you can believe it. But, actors and actresses have killed it in their debuts, as Audrey Hepburn and many others have shown. Weirdly, O'Hara's character falls for one of the smugglers who turns out to be a law enforcement agent (because that makes sense) and their relationship almost makes sense.

Almost.