Jamaica Inn (1939)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Charles Laughton, Leslie Banks, Robert Newton, Maureen O’Hara, Marie Ney, Horace Hodges, Frederick Piper, Emlyn Williams.

Lesser Hitchcock sends young O’Hara to the coast of Cornwall to stay with her aunt (Ney), whose husband runs not only the titular house but also a gang of cutthroats that murder and plunder from shipwrecks caused by local justice of the peace Laughton. The pieces are there for an absorbing thriller, but they never quite fit right. Laughton’s foppish gusto is wrong for the role, and tension behind the identity of the “secret” pirate leader is spoiled since the script reveals early on that it’s him; meanwhile, O’Hara (in her first major role) is lovely but lusterless. Some atmospheric moments and lavish staging hold interest even through the mid-section drag, but there’s precious little suspense generated by the so-named Master. Based on the Daphne du Maurier novel, the first of three adaptations he directed of her work (the second being the very next film he’d tackle, Rebecca); this was also the final film he made in Britain for over three decades.

44/100