Set in Cornwall where a young orphan, Mary, is sent to live with Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss who are the landlords of the Jamaica Inn. Mary soon realizes that her uncle's inn is the base of a gang of ship wreckers who lure ships to their doom on the rocky coast. The girl starts fearing for her life. Written by

Plot Synopsis:
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"Oh Lord, we pray Thee, not that wrecks should happen, but that if they do happen, Thou wilt guide them to the coast of Cornwall for the benefit of the poor inhabitants".

So ran a prayer in the early XIX Century, before there were formal lighthouses, in Cornwall, a lawless corner of England . . .

A ship is off the coast, making its way towards the shore on a stormy night. A man leaves Jamaica Inn on horseback and goes to the bluffs to conceal the warning light and cause the ship to run aground. A band of men wait on the shore for the inevitable shipwreck. As the frigate grinds itself to death on the rocks, the men kill all the surviving sailors and loot the cargo.

It is daytime, and a stagecoach is on a road along the coast. The driver says to his companion that "Queer things" go on at Jamaica Inn. Inside the stage coach, a young Irish woman Mary Yellen (Maureen OHara) comments that she intends to stop at Jamaica Inn, whereupon those who hear her seem dumbfounded and horrified.

Mary first tells, then yells at the coachman to drop her off there, but he rudely speeds past the place and stops near the mansion of Sir Humphrey, the local squire (Charles Laughton). She gets out to complain, but the coachman throws her trunk to the ground, tells her to ask Sir Humphrey for help, as he has a soft spot for young women, and drives off.

Sir Humphrey is having dinner with upper class friends inside, grandly spouting off upper class platitudes. The butler tells him that a young woman has come and asked for him, so he leaves the dinner and goes to meet her. She reveals to him that she needs to go to Jamaica Inn to find her aunt Patience, wife of the innkeeper, and intends to move in with them, as her mother has recently died . Sir Humphrey is much struck by her beauty, offers his support and help anytime she needs anything, and orders a servant to prepare two horses so they can ride to the inn and carry her trunk.

At first Mary mistakes the rude man who answers the door to be an underling, when it is actually her uncle Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks). Reunited with her aunt Patience (Marie Ney), a kindly woman bullied by a husband she loves, she is assigned upstairs room and told to get settled. She finds her aunt is totally under the thumb of the vicious Joss, and also senses that something evil is afoot at the inn.

In the rooms below, dirty men are drinking and singing loudly as the uncle joins them in the merriment. The uncle is the leader of this band of thieves. They are complaining that the recent wrecks have yielded very little money, and suspect a skimmer in their midst. Suspicion falls on the newest member of the gang, Jem Trehearne (Robert Newton). He is searched and found to have a large amount of money on him, which in their eyes prove his guilt, so they knock him unconscious and set about to hang him

While this is going on, the squire has come back to Jamaica Inn to talk to Joss, as it is the squire who receives the contraband and fences it, keeping an enormous cut for himself. The squire and Joss argue about various things but Joss is no match for the squire in intelligence or education or connections, so he grumblingly caves in to everything the squire wants.

Meantime, Mary from her upstairs room hears the lynching plan and spots the unconscious Jem through a hole in the floor. The drunk men fit a rope over a beam and prepare to hang him. They leave the room to look for a suitable plaform, and Mary finds the opportunity to cut the rope and drag Jem out. He recovers consciousness in the nick of time, and flees outside. Meantime the lynching party returns, finds the cut rope, figure out that Mary has helped him, and comes after her. She manages to get to the roof outside, without being seen, and there finds Jem, also hiding. Joining up, they manage to elude all parties searching for them, and get away.

The squire, meantime, has been entertaining guests at his house, guests from whom he learns about the next ship that is to approach the coast and might be lured to be wrecked and looted. Joss shows up and must give the unpleasant news to the squire.

Jem and Mary have made their escape in a row boat to a cave along the shoreline below the inn, where they slept. Mary wakes first, decides she no longer wants to be with an outlaw, and prepares to row away in the rowboat. Jem wakes, attempts to stop Mary, and, distracted by their arguing, the row boat slips off the shore and floats away leaving both of them stranded in the cave. Unfortunately, their small row boat is spotted by the thieves, who know about the cave and figure out where they are. That cave can be reached from the top of the bluff by a small hole, so the thieves prepare to go down the small hole to reach the pair, and send for a larger boat to come. Slipping into the water, the pair hides behind a rock near the surf zone some distance from the cave as the thieves' boat passes by. They eventually make their way to shore, where Mary suggests they flee to the squire's home for assistance.

At the squire's house, Mary is led away to be given dry clothes. When she has gone, Jem reveals to Sir Humphrey that he is actually a lawman, an officer in the Royal Navy, who has been dispatched to uncover the thieves and bring them to justice. He suspects that there is another man behind the capers, someone who is sending the thieves information about what ships to lure and at what time, but he hasn't learned who that is. The squire furnishes Jem with officer's clothes, and offers to help directly, as he is the ranking magistrate in the area. They both grab their pistols and charge off to the Jamaica Inn to arrest Mary's aunt, uncle, and the gang for piracy, after sending a message to a garrison of the squire's knowledge, led by his supposed friend a Captain Boyle, to come help capture the gang. Mary overhears the arrest plan, steals the carriage to go warn her aunt and uncle, so that they may escape the hangman's noose.

Jem and the squire arrive at Jamaica Inn before Patience and Joss get away, and they are arrested and held at gunpoint. Mary is upset at having been deceived by Jem, in that he has let her think he was an outlaw, and for insisting that Patience has been in the gang all along. The Squire manages to send Jem away sufficiently long that he is able to communicate to Joss the timing and location of the next ship that is expected, and insists to Joss that the ship must be looted as all the others, despite the inconvenient fact that Jem knows about the gang. He desperately needs more money.

The gang arrives and with the Squires connivance, manages to free Joss and tie up the squire and Jem onto chairs. The gang is very keen to go trigger the wreck and get their next load of loot. They leave Patience holding a gun on the two prisoners, and take Mary with them as hostage. After the gang leaves, the squire calmly takes off his ropes, as his ropes had not really tied him down, and leaves, threatening Patience with harm to Joss if she disobeys. Jem works on Patience's conscience, telling her that she is helping to murder a large group of husbands, the officers and sailors on the ship, if she does not release him. Patience relents, Jem is freed, and he goes away to get real help. Mary, meantime, at the shore, manages to slip away from those holding her, reaches the beacon, uncovers the light, pushes one of the thieves off a cliff. The ship is saved. Mary is captured and returned to the gang, Joss, knowing that the squire has a very very special interest in Mary, gets her on a cart and as he escapes the gang's revenge with her, is shot in the back.

Joss and Mary make it back to the Inn. Mary wants her aunt and uncle to escape to avoid the gallows, but Joss is too hurt, Patience is too much in love to leave him, so they wait too long. The Squire makes it back to the Inn, shoots Patience, and takes Mary hostage. The Squire has arranged his getaway with her on a ship that is about to sail. But Jem and others track him down after capturing the gang, and Jem rescues Mary from his grip. Mary is reconciled with Jem and it is clear an unlikely love has blossomed. The Squire is trapped on the ship, and goes up the highest mast to get away from those who are about to capture him. Rather than surrender, he jumps off the mast to his death.

Alfred Hitchcock made no cameo appearance in this movie.
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Was reportedly one of Alfred Hitchcock's most unhappy directing jobs. He felt caught between Charles Laughton and Laughton's business partners. Later, he said that he did not so much direct the film as referee it.
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One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.
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This was the last movie that Alfred Hitchcock made in England before going to Hollywood under contract to David O. Selznick.
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When Charles Laughton was cast in the role of Squire Pengallan, he insisted that Maureen O'Hara be cast in the role of Mary.
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In an interview with François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock said about this film, "Although it became a box-office hit, I'm still unhappy over it." It made a profit of $3.7 million.
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In a 1972 interview with Pia Lindström, Alfred Hitchcock said that it took one full morning to get one closeup of Charles Laughton. He also said that "he was a nice man. A charming man. He really was. But oh! He suffered so much, because he felt he couldn't get it out. And we were one whole morning on the one closeup until he got up. And he was crying in the corner. And I went over and patted him on the shoulder".
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This was the first of three Daphne Du Maurier tales that Alfred Hitchcock made into movies. The other two were Rebecca (1940) and The Birds (1963).
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Maureen O'Hara was "Introduced" in the opening titles.
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Alfred Hitchcock was very unhappy with the changes that were made to the script. This was revealed in Charlotte Chandler's book "It's Only a Movie".
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This was Alfred Hitchcock's last film with John Longden and Clare Greet. Greet played Grammy Tremarney (one of Sir Humphrey's tenants) and Longden played Capt. Johnson; he worked with Hitchcock in five others: Blackmail (1929), Juno and the Paycock (1929), Elstree Calling (1930) (in the short sketch directed by Hitchcock), The Skin Game (1931), Young and Innocent (1937). Greet worked with Hitchcock in seven other films: Number 13 (1922) (Hitchcock's unfinished film), The Ring (1927), The Manxman (1929), Murder! (1930), Lord Camber's Ladies (1932) (which Hitchcock produced but did not direct), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Sabotage (1936).
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Although Alfred Hitchcock was unhappy with the script and Charles Laughton's performance, still he experimented on this film just as he did on his previous film, The Lady Vanishes (1938). This film has background music only at the beginning and the end. Hitchcock and cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr. gave the film a darker look in order to make it very atmospheric. Stradling later worked with Hitchcock in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and Suspicion (1941).
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The film takes place in Cornwall in 1819.
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The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
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In the original script written by Sidney Gilliat and Joan Harrison, the villain was a hypocritical preacher. However, the villain was changed to a squire because unsympathetic portrayals of the clergy were forbidden by the Production Code in Hollywood. Charles Laughton was originally cast as the uncle, but he cast himself in the role of villain. Since Laughton was the co-producer and the star of this film, he demanded that Hitchcock give his character, Squire Pengallon, greater screen time. This forced Hitchcock to reveal that Pengallon was a villain in league with the smugglers earlier in the film than he had planned. Laughton's acting was a problem as well for Hitchcock. Laughton played the Squire as having a mincing walk, to the beat of a German waltz which he played in his head, while Hitchcock thought it was out of character.
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Toward the end of the film as the ship is heading for the rocks, someone yells "Hard a port!" The helmsman then turns the wheel to starboard and then the ship is seen moving to starboard.
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In the first scene where the wreckers are assembled at the inn, Dandy's many tattoos are shown in close-up and are featured prominently as he recalls a past love affair commemorated in one of them. Yet in one tableau view of the gang from that same scene, there's not a single tattoo to be seen on his chest under his open coat.
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When Trehearne and Sir Humphrey are sharing a drink, the Squire drinks holding the glass with his left hand and sets it down using his right.
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A wave comes up, about to crash over the left side of the ship (in the opening scene). In the next shot, the wave is coming from behind.
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When Mary takes off Jem's rope, she is on his left side. In the next shot, she is on his right.
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As Jem and Sir Humphrey Pengallan are being tied up, one of the men adjusts Jem's scarf and it's almost horizontal but in the next shot it's vertical.
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In the scene where Jem and Sir Humphrey are tied up, the chain that connects the two sides of Sir Humphrey's cloak is high on his chest in some shots and right below his chin on other shots.
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After Mary has been tied up and the cloak has been placed on her, the amount of her face that is visible under the hood varies between shots.
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When Jem is talking to Sir Humphrey's servants to ask where he is, there are no shadows on his back in shots from far away but during the close-ups, there are many shadows of tree branches on his back.
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After Trehearne and Mary escape from the villains by swimming out to their boat, they wind up seeking refuge at Pengallan's home. While still in his soaking clothes, Trehearne pulls a dry folded piece of paper from his pocket.
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Immediately after Sir Humphrey shoots Patience, he is seen holding a gun. But in a subsequent shot, the gun has disappeared.
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Right before Sir Humphrey ties up Mary's mouth, his hand jumps to being on her shoulder even though it is not there in shots before and after.
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When the men are being arrested, one of the men has a strip of fabric hanging from the right side of his head. In a later shot, it is hanging from the left side of his head and he could not have changed it because his hands were tied.
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inn|ship|cornwall|orphan|shipwreck|mansion|cutthroat|hanging|escape|stagecoach|1800s|reference to king george iv of england|merchant ship|storm|intrigue|potato|eating|food|drinking|drink|death|country name in title|two word title|catching a falling object|jumping to death|face slap|hands tied behind back|gagged|wind|tied to a chair|flintlock pistol|swimming|climbing down a rope|rowboat|hanged by the neck|candle|pipe smoking|lantern|horse in house|decanter|sailing ship|begins with text|teenage girl|tears|smuggling|smuggler|no survivors|lust|lloyds of london|investigation|insurance investigator|greed|fear|crying|cornish village|coastline|aristocrat|woman loyal to bad man|wealth|tied up|silk|screaming in fear|reference to lord byron|nobleman|madman|locking door|insane man|husband wife relationship|horse riding|handcuffs|giving a toast|butler|bound and gagged|aunt niece relationship|suspense|throat slitting|rescue|nobility|soldier|undercover agent|kidnapping|police|knife|lynching|brandy|drunkenness|storm at sea|murder|suicide|pirate|horse|squire|pistol|insanity|spit in the face|sea|chase|undercover|falling from height|harbor|servant|based on novel|

AKAs Titles:
Argentina - La posada maldita
Austria - Riff-Piraten
Belgium (French title) - La taverne de la Jamaïque
Brazil - A Estalagem Maldita
Denmark - Jamaica-kroen
Spain - Posada Jamaica
Finland - Jamaica Inn rantarosvot
Finland - Jamaica Innin rannikkorosvot
Finland (Swedish title) - Vräkplundrarna på Jamaica Inn
France - L'auberge de la Jamaïque
France - La taverne de la Jamaïque
Greece (reissue title) - I taverna tis Jamaica
Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title) - I taverna tis Zamaikas
Hungary (alternative title) - Fekete è jszakák
Hungary - Jamaica fogadó
Israel (Hebrew title) - Poonduck Jamaica
Italy - La taverna della Giamaica
Mexico - La posada maldita
Netherlands - In de Jamaica
Poland - Oberza Jamajka
Portugal - A Pousada da Jamaica
Sweden - Värdshuset Jamaica Inn
Soviet Union (Russian title) - ТавеÑ€на Ямайка
West Germany - Die Taverne von Jamaika
West Germany - Riff-Piraten


Certifications:
Argentina:13 / Australia:PG / Australia:G (TV rating) / Canada:PG (Ontario) / Finland:K-12 (1995) / Finland:K-16 (1939) / France:U / Germany:12 / Netherlands:18 (original rating) (1939) / Sweden:15 / UK:U / UK:A (original rating) / USA:Passed (National Board of Review) / USA:Approved (PCA #6247)