Jamaica Inn (1939)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Sidney Gilliat (screenplay) &
Joan Harrison (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 October 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime

Plot:

In Cornwall, around 1800, a young woman discovers that she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.

Plot Keywords:

Inn | Pirate | Orphan | Shipwreck | Ship

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	Sir Humphrey Pengallan
Horace Hodges	...	His Butler
Hay Petrie	...	His Groom
Frederick Piper	...	His Agent
Herbert Lomas	...	His Tenant
Clare Greet	...	His Tenant
William Devlin	...	Hiss Tenant
Jeanne De Casalis	...	His Friend (as Jeanne de Casalis)
Mabel Terry-Lewis	...	His Friend (as Mabel Terry Lewis)
A. Bromley Davenport	...	His Friend (as Bromley Davenport)
George Curzon	...	His Friend
Basil Radford	...	His Friend
Leslie Banks	...	Joss Merlyn
Marie Ney	...	Patience - His Wife
Maureen O'Hara	...	Mary - His Niece

Runtime:

108 min | USA:98 min | Canada:90 min (Ontario)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 (1995) | Finland:K-15 (2006) | Australia:G (TV rating) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:A (original rating) | France:U | USA:Approved (PCA #02483) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Mayflower Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Maureen O'Hara was "Introduced" in the opening titles.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the first scene where the wreckers are assembled at the inn, Dandy's many tattoos are shown in close-up and are featured prominently as he recalls a past love affair commemorated in one of them. Yet in one tableau view of the gang from that same scene, there's not a single tattoo to be seen on his chest under his open coat.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Captain: Can you make out the beacon light?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Blue Murder: Tooth and Claw (#5.3)" (2009)

Rich cinematic flourishes and a realistic atmosphere on screen

Even though it is one of the weakest works of Hitchcock, the film surprisingly provides rich cinematic flourishes. For a 1939 film, it captures on screen the atmosphere and dark mood of the novel quite vividly—the stormy scene, the cave, and the inn (with the name board flapping in the wind). It is another matter that the albino parson of the book is transformed into a squire (with an unbelievable eyebrow make-up) in the film who commands his steed to be brought inside his dining hall. Daphne du Maurier's novel was adapted for cinema by the trio of Sidney Gilliat, Joan Harrison and J.B. Priestley, and reportedly the author did not approve of the end-product.

As in many Hitchcock films there is a recurring reference to marriage. Here a good woman remains faithful to her boorish and cruel husband through thick and thin.

As in most Hitchcock films there is a lot of sexual innuendo without any sex on screen, especially when Pengallen (Charles Laughton) makes the young girl (Maureen O'Hara) his prisoner. (The only film where Hitchcock showed sex on screen was "Frenzy.") And as in many a Hitchcock film, a bad guy turns out to be a good guy. This is one of the rare films of Hitchcock where the director does not make a cameo appearance.

The best cinematic flourishes were—-the focus on the thin hands of the 17 year old who cannot be shackled by the soldiers as the handcuffs are too big, the opening "prayer" that serves as a grim introduction and finally the last scene of the film: Chadwick, the squire's butler, who thinks he can hear his dead master calling him for help in death.