Jamaica Inn was Alfred Hitchcock's last film he directed in the UK before leaving us for the US and it seems his mind wasn't really in it as you might be able to tell from my review below. The film was an adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel (which had the same name) and starred Maureen O'Hara, Charles Laughton, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks and Marie Ney.

In the 1800s Bodmin Moor in Cornwall was rife with smugglers, Jamaica Inn was famous for being a base for smugglers and smugglers would deliberately lure ships in order to wreck them so they could plunder them for the goods on board. This film is set in a time before British Coast Guards existed.

Mary (O'Hara) turns up at the home and inn of her aunt Patience (Ney), Jamaica Inn as she has been orphaned. Patience is married to the brutish Joss (Banks) who is not happy to see Mary. To Mary's dismay she finds out pretty quickly that her uncle Joss is a smuggler and is running a smuggling ring from the back of the inn but she is unaware that her uncle is not the chief smuggler. On her journey to her aunt's home she had come across Sir Pengallon, a local squire, who is actually the recipient of most of the booty from the sale of the smuggled goods, who is quite taken with her. Mary manages to save the life of Traherne (Newton) who is left for dead by the smugglers gang as they think he is the one who's taking more than his fair share of the booty. Unknown to them all, he's actually an official inside man planted in order to investigate the forced ship wrecks and bring the smugglers to justice. Sir Pengallon is not one to be trifled with and now he has set his eyes on Mary, he wants her for himself at all costs.

Will the squire get the girl? Will Traherne be able to report the smugglers without losing his life? Will Mary be able to escape the lustful intentions of both the squire and her aunt's creepy husband Joss?

Being generally a fan of all things Hitchcock, I hadn't heard much about this film before I watched it. To be perfectly honest, I should have read some reviews about it before purchasing it to add to my collection but the DVD was so cheap that I thought I'd just buy it and watch it and make up my own mind about it.

The character of Mary is supposed to be in her early 20s when she arrives to live with her aunt completely unannounced. The behavior of her uncle Joss towards her is quite vulgar and one wonders why a wife would put up with her husband being so lustful towards

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