A Few Words About A few words about...™ Jamaica Inn (BBC) -- DVD (1 Viewer)

After the high-end Cohen release of the 1939 Hitchcock version of Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, I decided that the new BBC version via Acorn might be an interesting comparison, especially as it has a superb cast.

Visually, and in setting, it appears to be a quality effort, but after about 40 minutes, at two different times -- I  had to take a break -- I gave up.

While a Blu-ray might have been nice, even that upgrade would probably not have helped the audio, which is, at times, unintelligible.  Music is just a problematic.

We may never know what's going on here.  I doubt that it's the original recording, so probably something in the mastering or authoring.

Image - DVD / n/a

Audio - 1

Pass / Fail - Fail

RAH

The sound was an issue on broadcast.

Ha, yeah I remember that, it was all over the papers. Not really my thing, but I did watch some of episode two, by that time the BBC said they'd fixed it. There was scene in a prison cell where a guy was mumbling in a Cornish accent, & he had his head down so you couldn't even lipread. Not fixed at all, I think it would need a complete remix, & some of the actors back in for re-voicing.

How utterly bizarre.


And still, they released the discs.

I am from that part of the world where Jamaica Inn is set ans still had to resort to the subtitles.

Dodgy accents (many Cornish folk had a good laugh) and rampant mumbling have plagued this since broadcast. It's not just the DVD release. That is - bafflingly - how the audio is presented for this series.

I shouldn't comment as I've not seen anything of this production. When it was first shown in the UK the adverse comments about the sound were deterrents.


The BBC seldom if ever admits a mistake, however many complaints it receives. There's a radio programme called FEEDBACK in which, typically, numerous complaints are read followed by the producer of the programme involved dismissing them in favour of his or her judgement.


It's also true that actors love speaking very quietly and some directors encourage the practise whilst filming in noisy environments and then later adding even more obscuring FX & music. That is obviously the situation with JAMAICA INN, coupled with the inevitable refusal to admit to the parcel of errors. And rather than taking all necessary steps to fix the problems (where to find the budget?) they've elected to jeopardise foreign sales, home repeats and disc marketing.


As RAH has been known to advise on other occasions: Move along please .......

It's somewhat baffling that they didn't amend the audio for the home release. I mean, they wouldn't even have to admit to an error, or call attention to the fix...just quietly remix the tracks and put it on the market as if the bad audio had never happened in the first place. In time, people would forget that it ever had.

I recall seeing a film, heavy in accent, but with fine recording...

The title Sparrows Can't Sing comes to mind, or something close. Dialect was the problem, so it was subtitled.

No more problem

I don't see that as the case here, as even music is off, much like the 16mm print of the Hitchcock version back in the old days of fillum.

RAH

Just got through watching the last episode of the latest series of Lewis, still my favorite after 8 seasons.


I started off disliking Laurence Fox because I couldn't understand a single syllable of what he was saying, and had to resort to subtitles. After living in England for six years, with a flatmate who constantly joggled between received pronunciation and cockney, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd consider an English production in the foreign language category. That seemed to be the beginning of a trend, with other actors in other productions either allowed to speak 'realistically', or encouraged to do so by directors or sound people ignorant of the basic necessity of being understood. Michael Caine once (clearly!) said that part of his success lay in the fact that he made himself be understood by American audiences without losing that wonderful cockney.


As it happened, Fox is so likable (Kevin Whately's likability of course is off the charts) that I quickly forgave him and put up with the annoyance of subtitles until...this last season. His brilliant (at least in his early days before he took that disastrous sabbatical) Dad must have finally sat him down and had 'words', because I could understand every word this time around.

'Kes' from Northern England (Yorkshire). Gregory's Girl from Scotland. Two examples of films which didn't mind the use of thick dialect but which made every word crystal-clear.

If memory serves right, Kes had to be given an alternate soundtrack for some audiences, both in Southern England and America.

Trainspotting was also redubbed for its initial North American distribution.