Jamaica Inn (film) far-removed from the darker characters and sinister inn and coastline depicted in the book. Today it is considered one of Hitchcock's worst films. Hitchcock himself was disgusted with the film even before it was finished and stated that it was a "completely absurd" idea. However, the film still garnered a large profit (US$3.7 million, a huge success at the time) at the box office. Daphne du Maurier was also not pleased with the finished production and for a while she considered withholding the film rights to "Rebecca". In 1978, film critic Michael Medved gave "Jamaica Inn" a place in his
Daphne du Maurier novel into French and sent it to a publisher in Paris, who she learned was also Ms. du Maurier's [publisher] only after "Rebecca" became a worldwide success. The novels have identical plots and even some identical episodes." Author Frank Baker believed that du Maurier had plagiarised his novel "The Birds" (1936) in her short story "The Birds" (1952). Du Maurier had been working as a reader for Baker's publisher Peter Davies at the time he submitted the book. When Hitchcock's "The Birds" was released in 1963, based on du Maurier's story, Baker considered, but was advised against, pursuing costly litigation