Jamaica Inn

MOVIE #1,393 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 02.23.24 EVERY OTHER FRIDAY I’M REVIEWING THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. THIS IS TGI-HITCHOCK! This Hitchcock is notable for a couple of reasons: it’s the first of three Daphne du Maurier adaptations (the other being Hitchcock’s next film, the acclaimed Rebecca, and one of his last, The Birds) and it’s his final UK film before his move to Hollywood. Perhaps due in part because of the latter, this is often considered one of his lesser pictures, but I quite enjoyed it. This is also the first Hitchcock film to feature Charles Laughton, and it was my first exposure to the legendary English actor as well. He’s a total ham and I loved his performance. Chadwick!

This is a period piece set in the 1800s and the plot concerns local squire and judge (Laughton) and his connection to a group of ne'er-do-wells who cause shipwrecks and plunder/murder along the Cornish coastline. Some excellent miniature work with tiny ships on rough seas…


Even some of the jokes hit home…


(You probably need more context to full get the horse goof, but trust me.)

Overall, I could see why this is viewed as a slight entry but it’s still a lot of fun. Laughton’s eyebrows are a movie unto themselves. Chadwick!

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,392 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,394 ⫸

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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. It was released on May 15, 1939.