Cast
Sir Humphrey Pengallan : Charles Laughton
Chadwick (Sir Humphrey's butler) : Horace Hodges
Sam (Sir Humphrey's groom) : Hay Petrie
Davis (Sir Humphrey's agent) : Frederick Piper
Sir Humphrey's tenant : Herbert Lomas
Mrs Marney (Sir Humphrey's tenant) : Clare Greet
Sir Humphrey's tenant : William Devlin
Sir Humphrey's friend (as Jeanne de Casalis) : Jeanne De Casalis
Sir Humphrey's friend (as Mabel Terry Lewis) : Mabel Terry-Lewis
Sir Humphrey's friend (as Bromley Davenport) : A Bromley Davenport
Sir Humphrey's friend : George Curzon
Sir Humphrey's friend : Basil Radford
Joss Merlyn : Leslie Banks
Patience Merlyn (Joss's wife)) : Marie Ney
Mary (Joss's niece) : Maureen O'Hara

Combine a classic English novelist, a masterful English film director and a windswept tale of pirates and highwaymen, and you have the perfect formula for a rip-roaring melodrama. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Jamaica Inn is based on Daphne Du Maurier's eponymous page-turner, and is centred around Mary (played by a young Maureen O'Hara in her first starring role), an orphan sent to live with her uncle and aunt at the Jamaica Inn, on the edge of Bodmin Moor. She soon realises however, that the inn is the base for a gang of local smugglers and wreckers, led by the local magistrate Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton on terrifically boorish form), and her own uncle Joss, and fears for her life.

Early nuances of the familiar Hitchcock style are in evidence: a young woman is of course bound during the course of the action and although this is one of his earlier works (made in 1939 during wranglings that delayed his emigration to America), it is an offbeat, classy film. Hitchcock fans may find the costumes off-putting, but this is a vintage film with tremendous of-the-period character acting, strong performances and set against the dark and atmospheric backdrop of the rugged Cornish coastline.