The story is by Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca.  Lead actor:  the great Charles Laughton.  The female lead:  a ravishing eighteen-year-old Maureen O' Hara.  Director:  Alfred Hitchcock.            Despite its pedigree, Jamaica Inn is no masterpiece.  It's an undistinguished pirate story that was reportedly taken on by Hitchcock as a favor to Mr. Laughton.  It did, however, do brisk business at the box office.          After Jamaica Inn Hitchcock left England for Hollywood under contract to David O. Selznick.

Production: Mayflowers-Productions, 1939, GB Producers: Erich Pommer and Charles Laughton. Production Manager: Hugh Perceval. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Scenario: Sidney Cilliat and Joan Harrison, from the novel by Daphne du Maurier. Dialogues: Sidney Gilliat and J. B. Priestley. Adaptation: Alma Reville. Directors of Photography: Harry Stradling and Bernard Knowles. Special Effects: Harry Watt. Sets: Tom N. Moraham. Costumes: Molly McArthur. Music: Eric Fenby, directed by Frederic Lewis. Editing: Robert Hamer. Sound Engineer: Jack Rogerson. Distributors: Associated British, 1939, 98 minutes; Paramount, 1939. Principal Actors: Charles Laughton (Sir Humphrey Pengaltan), Horace Hodges (Chadwick, his butler), Hay Petrie (his groom), Frederick Piper (his broker), Leslie Banks (Joss Merlyn), Marie Ney (Patience, his wife), Maureen O'Hara (Mary, his niece), and Herbert Lomas, Clare Greet, William Delvin, Jeanne de Casalis, A. Bromley Davenport, Mabel Terry Lewis, George Curzon, Basil Radford, Emlyn Williams, Wylie Watson, Morland Graham, Edwin Greenwood, Stephen Haggard, Robert Newton, Mervyn Johns.