On the page for this movie it says for runtime - 108 min/USA: 98 min. What's with the loss of ten minutes? Was a reel lost? It doesn't seem like there's a missing reel.
Anyway, its a good movie. I didn't really like the pacing, but I thought that it was a fine film. It may be a lesser Hitchcock effort, but its still a good movie.
"I'll show you the life of the mind!" - Madman Munson, Barton Fink
Funny you should mention this--I watched the film for the first time this morning and there was a point about halfway where there definitely seemed to be a reel missing. It's where Mary and Trehearne first escape from the inn and end up at Sir Humphrey's house. Mary is upstairs getting out of her wet clothes, and Sir Humphrey has just been told that Trehearne is a government agent. He walks through a door, and--suddenly, Mary is back at the inn with the Merlyns, and Sir Humphrey and Trehearne barge in with pistols drawn.
I figured it was just because I'd bought a really cheap DVD (four Hitchcock films for a buck), but now I'm not so sure.
http://www.bumscorner.com
Sorry to say, but your first instinct was right, porfle. I got a cheap-ish DVD version of the film too (it's the only movie on the disk), but the scene between Jem telling Sir Humphrey he's a law officer and them barging into the inn is included. Still, even my version is about 10 minutes short of the 108 minutes listed here.
Spoiler alert: I bet your version is also missing the great scene at the end when the wreckers are caught and Harry spits in the officer's face, the officer slaps him, and Harry smiles and goes on whistling. My old VHS version was missing that scene too. As a matter of fact, we were just discussing this very subject on the Robert Newton message board (www.voy.com/17058), and the most complete DVD version available right now seems to be on the "Miracle" label.
If anybody knows of a full 108-minute version on DVD, please let us know!
~~~
"I never drink ... wine."
No, THAT scene is included in my copy. But I wonder why the other one isn't?
http://www.bumscorner.com
A lot of the Public Domain versions have this chunk cut out of the middle of the movie. It seems to be a crude timing edit, probably just to fit the film to a tv slot. It does obscure some key plot points.
The longer version which seems to have been premiered may be an error carried over from some early notice or perhaps the film was tightened afterwards. I have never read any account of missing scenes. There are a few Hitchcock pictures where longer running-times were noted on first release. IIRC, Vertigo was passed by the bbfc at a few minutes longer than any version subsequently seen. Longer than the tacked-on Censorship Ending would account for. The same syndrome affects many non-Hitchcock films: nobody really seems to know why Pascal's Caesar & Cleopatra was fifteen minutes longer on first release. In a few cases, the discrepancies may turn out to be Roadshow-type features, such as Overtures and Intermission music.
Indeed, there is a whole reel missing.
Here you'll find detailed information about what is lost on some DVD versions of "Jamaica Inn".
http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Jamaica_Inn_DVD_-_Missing_Footage
I've got the Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray version of Jamaica Inn and it's 99 minutes long. So it seems it is missing nine minutes, if the total film duration should be 108 minutes. Is the latter figure correct, or is the Blu-ray film incomplete?
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