LAUGHTON THE GREAT

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 19

LAUGHTON THE GREAT

REGENT PRESENTS ' JAMAICA INN ' Charles Laughton is back again, and that is sufficient guarantee to any movie fan that something outstanding in the way of film faro is available. In tho screen version of Daphne Du Manner's ' Jamaica Inn,' now at the Regent, it can only bo said that Laughton is at the top of his form, and that is saying a very great deal indeed. Tho picture itself is magnificent melodrama, expertly handled by cast and directors, and is an excellent example of the high standard of picture being turned out nowadays by British studios. Since the film itself wastes no time in letting the audienco into the plot, it will bo giving away no secrets to tell tho story- Maureen O'Hara, beautiful young Irish orphan, is going to stay with her Uncle Joss and Aunt Patience at Jamaica Inn. The coachman will not stop there because of the inn's reputation as a haunt of ship-wreckers, and Maureen is carried on some distance before she is allowed to get out and her box thrown to tho roadside. Seeing the lights of the squire's mansion, she goes there for help, and the squire (Charles Laughton) is only too ready to bo of assistance when he sees how pretty she is. He rides with her to the inn, where Undo Joss refuses to let her stay the night till he gets orders from higher up—Joss doesn't want strangers about while his gang nro quarrelling over their spoils in a back room. Robert Newton, a Navy officer in disguise, investigating the terrible wrecks from which there are never any survivors, is suspected by the gang and strung up to the basement rafters under the horrified eyes of Maureen, who is watching through a crack in the wall. Reing a girl of spirit, she cuts tho officer down before he strangles, and they escape together to the squire's house after some hair-raising adventures.

Sir Humphrey is, in fact, the secret leader of the wreckers, and he cause® the young officer and his new-found love a good deal- of bother before he meets his death.

The producer has thought it politic to make some changes from the original, as may be seen by those who have read the book, notably in making the squire the villain instead of the parson. But the chief change is in making an “ .atmosphere ” novel into an action film—and a riotously exciting action film at that.

It goes without saying that Laughton is good. He romps all over the picture, enjoying himself immensely—as, to do him credit, does his audience. Leslie Banks is particularly good as Jess, Robert Newton and Maureen O’Hara are attractive in the romantic parts, and all the rest toss x off little gems of character acting as- if they mattered’not at all. " Eimyn' Williams is so heavily disguised by whiskers and dirt that he seems almost comical at times when he is meant to be vicious, but that is not of much consequence among such a mass of heavy-weight villainy. Laughton, like the film as a whole, has everything—a little love, a little of the grand gentleman, a little villainy, a little madness, and a gorgeous “ ring-down-the-curtain ” eud. ‘ Jamaica Inn ’ is a very long picture, but there is time for a short supporting programme of typical Regent merit.