6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Young orphan is sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle. She soon discovers that she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.
Starring: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Maureen O'Hara, Hay Petrie, Frederick PiperCrime | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho. North by Northwest. Vertigo. Strangers on a Train. The Man Who Knew Too Much (and also The Man Who Knew Too Much). The Lady Vanishes. Rear Window. The Birds. Rebecca. This by no means exhaustive list helps to point out one salient fact when dealing with one of the most iconic film directors of the 20th century (and perhaps of all time): it often appears that Hitch simply sat back and cranked out one veritable masterpiece after another, even if some (like Vertigo) weren’t greeted as masterpieces at the time of their release. And yet, as with anyone who was toiled in the film industry for untold decades, there are bound to be peaks and valleys. It may well be true that a valley for Hitchcock would be a relative peak for any other director, but there’s no denying that some of Hitchcock’s oeuvre doesn’t quite rise to the giddy heights of the vast bulk of his output. Films like I Confess, The Paradine Case and Under Capricorn have long existed on a sort of second (or, frankly, even third) tier of Hitchcock films, sulking in the shadows created by their better known, more beloved, cinematic siblings. Jamaica Inn, Hitch’s last British outing before he departed for supposedly greener shores in Hollywood, is typically placed on that figurative lower shelf, and there’s no denying that it’s a problematic piece, one that offers the rare sight of someone in a Hitchcock film evidently wielding more power than the director himself. In this particular case, it’s star and co-producer Charles Laughton, who according to most reports surrounding the shooting of this film, created obstacles at virtually every juncture that Hitch found increasingly difficult to overcome. Hitchcock, who famously corrected having been misquoted as saying “Actors are like cattle” to “Actors should be treated like cattle,” may well have been wishing Laughton be transported to a slaughterhouse for egotistical, out of control actors, for there’s an almost palpable dialectic at play in Jamaica Inn that sees Hitchcock’s measured, meticulously planned approach colliding rather inartfully up against Laughton’s more florid, hyperbolic tendencies.
Jamaica Inn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Cohen undertook a new 4K restoration in collaboration with the British Film Institute. The label's Tumblr feed contains this interesting blurb about the restoration and new scan:
This is a 4K restoration via a collaboration between Cohen Film Collection and the BFI. RRsat and Finishing Post Productions Ltd were tasked with achieving the best possible restoration at the highest suitable data rate. The original nitrate negatives were sourced from the BFI. These elements were then scanned at 4K resolution by RRsat utilising the ArriScan to create a DPX file sequence. The film was suffering from shrinkage and warping and as such had to be scanned without pin registration as the perforations would not allow.The results here are by and large stupendous, offering a wonderfully stable, organic looking image which preserves a natural grain field while offering excellent amounts of detail and fine detail. Contrast is solid, providing support for some lustrously deep blacks and impressively gradated gray scale. Resolution is so much improved that at times it seems possible to see little snippets of spirit gum affixed to Laughton's face in order to give him his comically bushy eyebrows. The increased resolution does tend to point out the use of miniatures and some tank work in the seagoing sequences, however. The elements, while perhaps not in absolutely pristine condition, are amazingly damage free and clean looking. Densities are still just slightly variable, but what appears to have been near heroic restoration work has ameliorated the bulk of any issues and this certainly stands as one of the more laudable efforts of a mid-level (if historically relevant) film in recent memory.
Once scanned, the 4K sequence required huge amounts of stabilisation to combat the shrinkage. Image warping also needed to be electronically pinned as the images were effectively bouncing around the screen. The nature of these issues required multiple software fixes on a frame by frame basis before the dirt and scratch removal could begin. The density within the image also fluctuated creating a pulsing effect which again had to be mapped and removed digitally.
Once these pre-fix stages were complete we moved into traditional restoration utilising multiple software packages including PFClean, AfterFX, MTI and Dark Energy to treat the dirt and scratches. Grain treatment was applied with a mind to keeping as close to the original cinematic feel to the film.
The audio required significant restoration. Our senior technician, Nitin, removed hiss, crackle and pops as well as dramatically improving the "noise" from the original tracks. The audio was digitised and then treated in the software domain in a completely non-destructive process.
Jamaica Inn was Alfred Hitchcock's last film to be made in the UK and as such we spared no effort in creating the highest quality master which our award winning colourist Ray King, graded on the DaVinci Resolve system, producing the fantastic results you can see on screen. Finishing Post Productions attended the grade and play out to ensure the theatrical integrity of the project.
Once approved the grade was rendered in to the sequence and transcoded into a 4k ProRes for DCP creation.
Jamaica Inn features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono track which, while probably not at the near miraculous levels of the video restoration, sounds surprisingly full if unavoidably boxy given its era's recording technologies. Eric Fenby's (rather brief) exciting score is very well rendered, sounding just a tad brittle in the upper registers. Dialogue is very cleanly presented. Any age related wear and tear has been largely mitigated by the restorative process, and the result is a very commendable and listenable track.
Cohen's press materials tout Jamaica Inn as a "rediscovered classic," which may be just a bit of wishful thinking. One of the least Hitchcockian of the master's many films, there are elements to enjoy here, but the overall aggregation is somewhat haphazard feeling, undercut continually by Laughton's mugging. Cohen's restoration is a real marvel, however, and anyone who has seen previous, at times shoddy, home video releases of Jamaica Inn will probably be amazed at the results. As Hitchcock's (temporary) swan song to England, Jamaica Inn is bittersweet at best, but Hitchcock completists will no doubt be thrilled to include this lesser outing in their collections. Recommended.
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