When is a Hitchcock film not a Hitchcock film, but in reality a Hitchcock film? “Jamaica Inn” is the answer; on the surface, it appears to be just another period piece with a clumsy introduction of all the main characters. Even with the outdated content and primitive special effects, it then picks up momentum as more than one individual is not who he seems to be. The addition of a small amount of delusion is just the cherry on top of Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara’s superb performances.
Alfred Hitchcock - Jamaica Inn (1939) In Cornwall, 1819, a young woman discovers she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit. Writers - Sidney Gilliat (screen play), Joan Harrison (screen play), J.B. Priestley (additional dialogue). Stars - Maureen O'Hara, Robert Newton, Charles Laughton. Watch film here
The film Jamaica Inn premiered in May 1939. It is based on a work of the same name by British author Daphne Du Maurier. Alfred Hitchcock is a master of creating an unsettling atmosphere that gives films a tinge of intense uncertainty.
The unexpected savior of the girl was played by Charles Loton, who received an Oscar for Best Male Role in Henry VIII’s Private Life. Mary was portrayed by American actress Maureen O’Hara. She so impressed Lawton with her talent that he saw her as the ideal candidate to play his partner in his next painting, and thus won About Hara’s claim to the leading female role. In the film “Jamaica Inn” also starred British actor Leslie Banks, whom the audience knows from many pictures of Hitchcock. Among them is Detective Man, who knew too much and Madeleine’s tape.
