FILM · 1939 · UK
Jamaica Inn
21 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (21)
- #001
This was the first of three Daphne Du Maurier novels that Sir Alfred Hitchcock adapted to film. The other two were Rebecca (1940) and The Birds (1963).
- #002
In a 1972 interview with Pia Lindström, Sir Alfred Hitchcock said that a close-up of Charles Laughton took an entire morning. He also said: "He was a good man. A charming man. He really was. But oh! He suffered so much that he felt he couldn't get it out, and we were in close-up all morning until he got up, and he was crying in a corner, and I went over and patted his shoulder."
- #003
This was the last film of Sir Alfred Hitchcock's in which he did not appear in a small role.
- #004
After Charles Laughton was cast as Squire Pengallan, he insisted that Maureen O'Hara take the role of Mary.
- #005
The real Jamaica Inn still stands as of 2022 and is located just off the A30 in Bolventor, Cornwall, England.
- #006
Maureen O'Hara (Mary) was "Introduced" in the opening title sequence. She had made Little Miss Molly (1938) before this, but that film was not released until 1940. This became her official film debut.
- #007
This was the last film Sir Alfred Hitchcock made in England before going to Hollywood under contract to producer David O. Selznick. His next film would again be an adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier novel, Rebecca (1940).
- #008
In the original screenplay by Sidney Gilliat and Joan Harrison, the villain was a hypocritical preacher. However, because the Production Code in Hollywood forbade unsympathetic portrayals of clergymen, the villain was changed to a squire. Charles Laughton initially took the uncle role, but assigned himself the villain role. Since Laughton was the co-producer and star of this film, he demanded that Sir Alfred Hitchcock give the character Squire Pengallon more screen time. This forced Hitchcock to reveal earlier in the film than planned that Pengallon was a villain in league with the smugglers. Laughton's acting was also a problem for Hitchcock. Laughton played the Squire as if taking short walks to the rhythm of a German waltz playing in his head, while Hitchcock thought this was wrong for the character.
- #009
Sir Alfred Hitchcock once told François Truffaut that he was "truly discouraged" when he noticed a major logical inconsistency in the plot; in particular, he said it made no sense that the judge played by Charles Laughton would openly spend time around the inn with his gang when he had every reason to stay as far away from it as possible.
- #010
The film is set in Cornwall in 1819.
- #011
Although Sir Alfred Hitchcock was unhappy with the screenplay and with Charles Laughton's performance, he still experimented on this film as he had done on The Lady Vanishes (1938). This film has background music only at its beginning and end. Hitchcock and Harry Stradling Jr. gave the film a darker look to make it quite atmospheric. Stradling later worked with Hitchcock on Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and Suspicion (1941).
- #012
In later interviews with François Truffaut, Sir Alfred Hitchcock regretfully recalled that Charles Laughton wanted only close-ups shot at the start of filming, because the actor had not yet decided how his character should walk. Ten days later Laughton came to Hitchcock and claimed he had solved the problem: apparently the walk was inspired by the rhythm of an old German waltz.
- #013
This was Maureen O'Hara's first major role and the first film of hers released in the United States.
- #014
Although the film gives the impression that the smugglers reach the shore and bring the contraband back quite quickly, the real Jamaica Inn (which inspired du Maurier to write the book) is 27 miles from the nearest coastline, up cliff paths and across part of Bodmin Moor, a long walk for horses.
- #015
This was the first of three films starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, the others being The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and This Land Is Mine (1943).
- #016
Stephen Haggard was 28 years old when he played the 17-year-old Willie Penhale.
- #017
The original copyright holder's failure to renew the copyright caused the film to fall into the public domain, meaning almost anyone could copy and sell a VHS or DVD copy of the film. As a result, many of the versions of this film on the market are either heavily (and often badly) edited and/or of extremely low quality, copied from a second- or third-generation (or later) copy of the film. However, it is available on Blu-ray.
- #018
Charles Laughton's character roughly corresponds to the character Francis Davey in the novel, since Francis Davey is the secret leader of the wreckers. However, he is actually a mixture of the villain Reverend Francis Davey and the landowner Bassat. There are many differences between the book and the film. In the book, Joss and Jem are brothers. The revelation of the identity of the wreckers' leader comes very late in the book.
- #019
This was the debut of the writer Joan Harrison.
- #020
Jamaica Inn received its first American television broadcasts on KTLA (Channel 5) in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 30, 1949; on WWJ (Channel 4) in Detroit on Sunday, November 20, 1949; on WSB (Channel 8) in Atlanta on Wednesday, December 7, 1949; on WLW-T (Channel 4) in Cincinnati on Sunday, December 18, 1949; and on WBZ (Channel 4) in Boston on Sunday, January 15, 1950. It then aired on WPIX (Channel 11) in New York City on Friday, March 24, 1950; on WGN (Channel 9) in Chicago on Monday, April 3, 1950; and on KGO (Channel 7) in San Francisco on Monday, June 15, 1950.
- #021
Willie Penhale was born in 1802.
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