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Poster for Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn

He ruled Jamaica Inn...citadel of sin on the moors, curse-ridden, shunned, reviled. Enough sensations for a dozen pictures. Laughton at his most magnificent.

1939 · 1h 40m · Approved Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

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Overview

In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
54%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Laughton is compelling from the first instant: His Pengallan is at least five of the seven deadly sins rolled into one, a cheerfully loathsome creature with wide-set eyebrows and a multitude of chins ...

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice
Rotten

By common consent, one of Alfred Hitchcock's poorest and least personal works, though it has some compensations.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Fresh

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.

Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten

The result is weird, but not wonderful.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Rotten

Having set his own standards, Alfred Hitchcock must be judged by them; and, by them, his Jamaica Inn is merely journeyman melodrama.

Frank S. Nugent, New York Times

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