Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Great!
Review: All there is to say is that this is a must see!
Rating:
Summary: Warning! Buy Kino Video DVD instead!
Review: Attention all admirers of Hitchcock films! This is the great forgotten Hitchcock film, along with Under Capricorn! 2 must haves for every admirer of Hitckcock films. Both very different than the usual suspence/wrong man Hitchcock film, but both brilliant and beautiful. I'm actually writing this review to warn the buyer NOT to buy the "Laserlight" version, because it is missing about 10 minutes from the film (from the scene right after Mr. Tremain reveals to Squire Pengalen who he really is, to the scene where they show up together at Jamaica Inn). Buy the "Kino" version instead! I can't say enough about both of these 2 films, but I'll leave it up to you, lovers of great cinema, to discover them for yourselves. Especially is you're a fan of Charles Laughton and/or Joseph Cotten and Ingred Bergman. It's worth every extra penny of the difference in price to have the full version of the film. Take a chance, my friend. Be astounded and amazed by these lost treasures, and rejoice at their salvation (and yours!)!
Rating: 
Summary: Five stars for Charles Laughton's best character-acting
Review: Charles Laughton is at his peak as the vain, self-indulgent, skirt-chasing, shifty-eyed Squire Humphrey Pengallan. He manages to combine the arrogance and explosive temper of Captain Bligh (MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY) with the twinkle-eyed, corpulant humor of Sir Wilfred Robarts (WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION), and he has a great straight-man in the person of his harried butler Chadwick. Maureen O'Hara is lovely and she screams well, but she's a little too drippy for my taste in this film. More excellent comedic-villian acting is provided by the minor members of the shore-dwelling wreaking-gang, and their leader, played by Leslie Banks, is terrifying. This movie makes me suspect that the young Robert Newton, who plays a soft-spoken good-guy, may have learned from Banks the ferocious glare and menacing body-language he was later to use so effectively playing murderers like Bill Sikes (OLIVER TWIST) and Long John Silver (TREASURE ISLAND).
Rating:
Summary: Laughton & Hitchcock are a winning team
Review: Charles Laughton is delicious in this classic Hitchcock thriller as the stuffy, regal Humphrey Pengallan, a psychotic country squire who decides the best way to meet the high costs of royal life is to indulge his immodest talents as a criminal mastermind. Unbeknownst to his friends and peers, Lord Pengallan has assembled a grimy band of cutthroat thieves which he secretly directs to wreck and loot merchant ships on the rocky Cornwall coast. He is of course thwarted by plucky newcomer Maureen O'Hara and her goodlooking beau, an undercover policeman whose cover is blown after one of their heists seems a bit light. Some Hitchcock fans apparently find this film less than satisfying, but it's as classy and as offbeat as any he's made; perhaps it's because the film is a period drama that folks are thrown off track. At any rate, this is vintage Hitchcock, and the character acting is typically impressive, particularly Emlyn Williams as Harry, the most menacing of the pirate crew... his is one of the most sinister screen villains you're likely to see. Laughton, of course, brings his tremendous range to bear, appearing at first as an overbearing aristocratic boor, then modifies himself to become in turns magnanimous, ruthless and finally so homicidally crazed and delusory that he takes on an almost pathetic air. And O'Hara, in her screen debut is both beautiful and full of pluck -- no helpless female here, as she stops the brigands almost single-handedly. An offbeat film, and definitely worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: Laughton at his best--criminal insanity can be fun!
Review: Charles Laughton really lets himself go, and he's absolutely convincing in his role as Squire Humphery Pengallan, the vain, smug, gluttonous, shifty-eyed, contemptuous, quick-witted murderer who gradually detatches himself altogether from reality as the law closes in on his schemes. Loathesome but also lovable, his performance combines the arrogance and abrupt temper of Captain Bligh (MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY) with the corpulent, bright-eyed humor typical of Senator Graccus (SPARTICUS), or of Sir Wilfred Robarts (WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION), with a final descent into total insanity thrown in for good measure. Chadwick, his butler, serves as a wonderful understated straight-man. Also, some of the minor members of the wreaking gang provide addional comedy. Maureen O'Hara screams well but she's a little too drippy here for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: Jamaica Inn
Review: Charles Laughton was really great in this movie and his role was believable but to me, I really wasn't all that nuts about Maureen O'Hara's role because I read the book at least five times (one as a book report in Highschool) and she wasn't really close to the Mary Yellan I knew from the book. It was indeed a pretty well done film but if you want to see the version which is closer to the book, you must see the 1980's version (I believe that is the time the film was made) with Jane Seymour as a true to the book Mary Yellan, Patrick McGoohan as the Uncle, Trever Eve as the young horse thief she falls in love with and the talented Billie Whitelaw as the spooked Aunt Patience. This is a movie worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable!
Review: I enjoyed this movie a lot. It is done in an old-fashioned style, but there's nothing wrong with that! As others have noted here, Charles Laughton puts in quite a performance. The gang of cutthroats are a colorful bunch of characters, the settings are very atmospheric and Robert Newton and Maureen O'Hara provide characters to root for.
Rating: 
Summary: Jamaica Inn-eresting, But.....
Review: In Jamaica Inn, Hitchcock did his second costume period piece. The first was Waltzes From Vienna and the last was Under Capricorn. Period costume dramas are not Hitchcock's forte. Since he cannot really connect with the emotions of the past with the same accuracy that he connects with the emotions of the present, these films suffer. Laughton does a great over-the-top performance and is well worth watching for that fact alone. Even though Hitchcock did not really click with Maureen O'Hara, she still gives a good performance. The film was Hitchcock's last before he left for America from Britain. At times the story lags and some of the dialogue is stilted, but Laughton carries the film and makes it rather entertaining. Many great camera shots also give Jamaica Inn another reason to check it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Very poor picture and sound
Review: It's a shame the quality of this video is poor. The movie is fascinating. The sound quality, however, is so variable that much of the dialogue vanishes. One key transition scene is missing entirely. Maureen O'Hara is seen dripping wet in her "chemise" in one scene, then the picture freezes and she is transported, without explanation and fully clothed, to Jamaica Inn. There must be a better print of this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A great story!
Review: Laughton plays the leader of a band of plundering pirates in this adventure yarn based upon Daphne DuMaurier's soapy gothic novel. He was originally cast as a licentious parson, but, because of a possible (and most likely) run-in with the notorious Hays Office, was switched to the squire role. The ravishingly beautiful but unknown Maureen O'Hara was eighteen here, in her film debut. Laughton informed the other cast members that they should all get behind Maureen and help her: "Two days later, we were fighting for our scenes. That child was stealing our scenes from us!". Also in the cast is playwright Emlyn Williams (THE CORN IS GREEN & NIGHT MUST FALL) and Basil Radford, who had charmed audiences the previous year in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES. This was the last film Hitchcock made in pre-war Britain; he would soon after set sail for America, where he was destined for enormous fame.
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