JAMAICA INN (1939) Maureen O'Hara, Robert Newton & Charles Laughton | Adventure, Crime | B&W

Jamaica Inn is a 1939 British adventure thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name. It is the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted (the others were her novel Rebecca and short story "The Birds"). It stars Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in her first major screen role. It is the last film Hitchcock made in the United Kingdom before he moved to the United States.

The film is a period piece set in Cornwall in 1820, in the real Jamaica Inn (which still exists) on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

SYNOPSIS
In Cornwall, 1819, a young woman discovers she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.

The film is set in 1820 (at the start of the reign of King George IV, as mentioned by Pengallan in his first scene).

Over and above its function as a hostelry, Jamaica Inn houses the clandestine rural headquarters of a gang of cut-throats and thieves, led by innkeeper Joss Merlyn. They have become wreckers. They are responsible for a series of engineered shipwrecks in which they extinguish coastal warning beacons, causing ships to run aground on the rocky Cornish coast. They then kill the surviving sailors and steal their cargo.

One evening, a young Irish-woman, Mary Yellan, is dropped off by coach near the inn, at the home of the local squire and justice of the peace, Sir Humphrey Pengallan. She requests the loan of a horse so she can ride to Jamaica Inn to re-unite with her aunt Patience (the wife of Joss Merlyn). Despite Pengallan's warnings, she intends to live at Jamaica Inn with her late mother's sister. It transpires that Pengallan is the secret criminal mastermind behind the wrecking gang; he learns from his well-to-do friends and acquaintances when well-laden ships are passing near the coast, determines when and where the wrecks are to be caused, and fences the stolen cargo. He uses the lion's share of the proceeds to support his lavish lifestyle and passes a small fraction of them to Joss and the gang.

Meanwhile, Pengallan learns of a ship full of precious cargo which is due to pass the local coastline. He informs Joss and the gang, who go to the beach, and there extinguish the coastal warning beacon, as they wait for the ship to appear. However, Mary re-lights the warning beacon, and the ship's crew avoid the treacherous rocks and sail by unharmed. The gang angrily resolves to kill Mary as revenge for preventing the wreck, but Joss, who has developed a reluctant admiration for her, rescues her and the two escape by horse-cart. Joss is shot in the back and collapses when they reach Jamaica Inn. As Patience is about to tell Mary that Pengallan is the secret leader of the wrecking gang, Pengallan shoots and kills Patience from off-camera. Joss dies of his wound as well. Pengallan then takes Mary hostage, ties and gags her, and tells her that he plans to keep her now that she has no one else in the world. He drives her, still tied up and covered by a heavy cloak, to the harbour, where they board a large ship going to France.

CAST & CREW
Charles Laughton as Sir Humphrey Pengallan
Leslie Banks as Joss Merlyn
Maureen O'Hara as Mary Yellen
Robert Newton as James 'Jem' Trehearne - Sir Humphrey's Gang
Marie Ney as Patience Merlyn
Horace Hodges as Butler
Hay Petrie as Groom
Frederick Piper as Agent
Herbert Lomas as Tenant
Clare Greet as Tenant
William Devlin as Tenant
Emlyn Williams as Harry the Pedlar
Jeanne de Casalis as Sir Humphrey's friend
Mabel Terry-Lewis as Lady Beston
A. Bromley Davenport as Ringwood (credited as Bromley Davenport)
George Curzon as Captain Murray
Basil Radford as Lord George
Wylie Watson as Salvation Watkins
Morland Graham as Sea Lawyer Sydney
Edwin Greenwood as Dandy
Mervyn Johns as Thomas
Stephen Haggard as The Boy, Willie Penhale

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Sidney Gilliat, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville, J. B. Priestley
Based on Jamaica Inn 1936 novel by Daphne du Maurier
Produced by Erich Pommer, Charles Laughton
Cinematography Bernard Knowles, Harry Stradling
Edited by Robert Hamer
Music by Eric Fenby
Production company Mayflower Productions
Distributed by Associated British Picture Corporation
Release date 15 May 1939
Running time 108 minutes
100 minutes (original US release)
Country United Kingdom
Language English