Jamaica Inn (DVD)

Jamaica Inn is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Charles Laughton and featuring Maureen O'Hara in her first major screen role. The film is a period piece set in Cornwall in 1819. Jamaica Inn houses a gang of cutthroats and thieves led by innkeeper Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks). The gang is responsible for shipwrecks which cause ships to run aground on the rocky Cornish coast, and then kill the survivors and steal their cargo. One evening, a young Irish woman, Mary Yellan (Maureen O'Hara) is dropped off by coach near the inn at the home of the local squire and justice of the peace, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton). She borrows a horse to ride to the Jamaica Inn to re-unite with her Aunt Patience. Despite Pengallan's (Charles Laughton) warnings she intends to live at Jamaica Inn with her late sister's mother. Shortly afterwards, we learn that Pengallan is the secret criminal mastermind behind the wrecking gang. One new member to the gang, Jem Trehea