One of the last Hitchcock films we're discovering in this tribute is Jamaica Inn (1939). This is the last film Alfred Hitchcock directed in the UK before moving in the United States and it is a rather interesting story about pirates and smugglers and among them all, a young woman who decides to go against them and give them to the police.
The story takes place in 1819 and it is set in Cornwall where a young orphan woman, Mary (Maureen O'Hara) arrives to live with her aunt and uncle who are the owners of the infamous Jamaica Inn.
Whoever hears of the Inn, tries to get far away and that may trouble Mary but it doesn't give her so much suspicion as to make her abandon her plans to live there.
When Mary arrives there however, with the help of a local lord who seems as decent and polite as lords must be (Charles Laughton), she realises that a group of savage men live in the inn.
These men are about to kill one of their mates, Trehearne (Robert Newton) and Mary decides to save him. So, they have to run. And there may be more in Trehearne than what meets the eye.
What is soon discovered is that these men are pirates who use false beacons to misguide ships and lead them towards the rocks and then they steal everything and kill everyone. But they don't do all this unprotected.
This is the first out of three Daphne Du Maurier tales that Hitchcock adapted for the screen. The other two were Rebecca and The Birds.
Being the last film he made in British grounds, it wasn't the happiest of all for Hitchcock. With this film, he might have introduced one of the biggest stars of later years (Maureen O'Hara), and he might even have used one of the biggest actors of that time (Charles Laughton) but he often felt less like a director and more like a referee between Laughton and his business partners.
Alfred Hitchcock didn't make a cameo appearance in this film.
0 σχόλια :
Post a Comment