Jamaica Inn (1939)
Overview
In coastal Cornwall, England, during the early 19th Century, a young woman who's come there to visit her aunt, discovers that she's married an innkeeper who's a member of a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecking and murder for profit.
Cast
Charles Laughton
Sir Humphrey Pengallan
Maureen O'Hara
Mary Yellan
Robert Newton
James "Jem" Trehearne
Leslie Banks
Joss Merlyn
Marie Ney
Patience Merlyn
Horace Hodges
Chadwick
Emlyn Williams
Harry
Wylie Watson
Salvation
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CinemaSerf
Charles Laughton excels as local grandee "Sir Humphrey" in this super adaptation of Daphné du Maurier's book. The bleak photography and huge great waves help generate a sense of the menace of the evil Cornish wreckers. They are led by Leslie Banks's malevolent "Joss" who is just as cruel to his wife "Patience" (Marie Ney) as he is to any survivors after his men seek to drive ships onto the rocks and make off with the contraband - murdering as they go. His niece "Mary" (Maureen O'Hara) and under-cover customs man "Trehearne" (Robert Newton) discover the evil antics and complicities of both "Joss", his puppet-master and his accomplices and the film now tells the tale of their own death-defying actions trying to bring all to justice. Alfred Hitchcock has much to work with here, the photography is effective and the star is exactly that.
Daphne du Maurier and Alfred Hitchcock, both of Rebecca fame, what could go wrong? Well, everything really. Dodgy cinematography, even for the time. Charles Laughton hamming it like Matt Lucas. Slow paced. Give this one a hard pass.
