Jamaica Inn (novel) Jamaica Inn (novel) Jamaica Inn is a novel by the English writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1936. It was later made into a film, also called "Jamaica Inn", directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a period piece set in Cornwall in 1820. It was inspired by du Maurier's 1930 stay at the real Jamaica Inn, which still exists and is a pub in the middle of Bodmin Moor. The plot follows a group of murderous wreckers who run ships aground, kill the sailors and steal the cargo. Mary Yellan, twenty years old, was brought up on a farm
Daphne du Maurier Now" (1973). Of the films, du Maurier often complained that the only ones she liked were Hitchcock's "Rebecca" and Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now". Hitchcock's treatment of "Jamaica Inn" was disavowed by both director and author, due to a complete re-write of the ending to accommodate the ego of its star, Charles Laughton. Du Maurier also felt that Olivia de Havilland was wrongly cast as the anti-heroine of "My Cousin Rachel". "Frenchman's Creek" fared better in a lavish Technicolor version released in 1944. Du Maurier later regretted her choice of Alec Guinness as the lead in the film of "The