Jamaica Inn

He ruled Jamaica Inn...citadel of sin on the moors, curse-ridden, shunned, reviled. Enough sensations for a dozen pictures. Laughton at his most magnificent.
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Timing: 1:40 (100 min)

no scores
6.1/10
250
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$200 436
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$0
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Eric Fenby
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Short description

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.

What's left behind the scenes

  • When Charles Laughton (1899-1962) was cast as Squire Pengallan, he insisted that Maureen O'Hara (1920-2015) be cast as Mary.
  • In the original screenplay by Sydney Gilliat (1908-1994) and Joan Harrison (1907-1994), the villain was a hypocritical preacher. Considering that depicting preachers in a negative light was prohibited by the so-called Hays Code (the ethical code for film production in Hollywood adopted in 1930), it was decided to replace the preacher with a squire. Charles Laughton was initially cast for another role, but he independently took on the role of the villainous squire. As he was also a producer, Laughton demanded more screen time for his character from director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). This forced Hitchcock to reveal the connection between the villain and the smugglers earlier than he had originally planned. Hitchcock also had problems with Laughton's performance. (For example, Laughton portrayed the squire with a slightly effeminate gait – in time with a waltz that the actor hummed to himself – while the director believed that such a gait did not quite suit the villain's image.)

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