Jamaica Inn (1939)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

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

Release Date:

13 octubre 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:

Suspense | Pirate | Nobility | Murder | Police

Comentarios de los usuarios:

...OK until you read the book

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	Sir Humphrey Pengallan
Horace Hodges	...	Chadwick - his Butler
Hay Petrie	...	Sam - his Groom
Frederick Piper	...	Davies - his Agent
Herbert Lomas	...	His Tenant
Clare Greet	...	Granny Tremarney - Sir Humphrey's tenant
William Devlin	...	His Tenant
Jeanne De Casalis	...	His Friend (as Jeanne de Casalis)
Mabel Terry-Lewis	...	Lady Beston - Sir Humphrey's friend (as Mabel Terry Lewis)
A. Bromley Davenport	...	Ringwood - Sir Humphrey's friend (as Bromley Davenport)
George Curzon	...	Captain Murray - Sir Humphrey's friend
Basil Radford	...	Lord George - Sir Humphrey's friend
Leslie Banks	...	Joss Merlyn
Marie Ney	...	Aunt Patience Merlyn
Maureen O'Hara	...	Mary Yellen

También conocida como:

Posada de Jamaica, La (Spain) [es]
Posada maldita, La (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

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

País:

UK

Idioma:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Clasificación:

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

Trivialidades:

This was the last movie that Alfred Hitchcock made in England before going to Hollywood under contract to David O. Selznick.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tramaine and Sir Humphrey are sharing a drink, the Squire drinks holding the glass with his left hand and sets it down using his right.

Quotes:

[Sir Humphrey admires a figurine]
Sir Humphrey Pengallan: What a rare beauty.
Lady: But it's not alive!
Sir Humphrey Pengallan: More alive than half the people here.

Movie Connections:

Version of Auberge de la Jamaïque, L' (1995) (TV)

...OK until you read the book

I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw Hitchcock's 'Jamaica Inn'. I had heard so many bad things about the movie and the fact that it seemed to have been made on the cheap and in a hurry so Hitch could do a runner to Hollywood. I really liked this movie - I thought the lovely Maureen O'Hara made a very spirited Mary Yellan and Leslie Banks was great as her hulking bully of an Uncle, Joss. While not as technically inventive as some of Hitchcock's other work before or since, I felt it was made with care and presented a realistic, gloomy atmosphere of doom with its endless night time scenes and constant soundtrack of howling winds and crashing waves.

And then I read the book...

Du Maurier's novel was so different as to bear no relation whatever to Hitchcock's film. The book was intense, gritty, dark and very moody. Mary Yellan was written almost as she is presented on screen with her sharp, Irish wits but Joss is a much more tortured, boorish animal than he is in the film. Also, the character played by Charles Laughton is absent in the book - or at least Laughton's incarnation is. The squire in the book is one of the good guys and features very little. The film of 'Jamaica Inn' may as well be called the Charles Laughton Show so as to give the actor every chance to overact.

See the film if you are a Hitchcock fan and enjoy it for what it is but if you've read and enjoyed the book, my advice would be to steer clear!