Charles Laughton Woman" (1933) in which he co-starred with Carole Lombard as a Cockney river trader in the Malayan jungle. Then came "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1934) as Norma Shearer's character's malevolent father (although Laughton was only three years older than Shearer); "Les Misérables" (1935) as Inspector Javert; one of his most famous screen roles in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) as Captain William Bligh, co-starring with Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian; and "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935) as the very English butler transported to early 1900s America. He signed to play Micawber in "David Copperfield" (1934), but after a few
Charles Laughton Wrath" (US title "The Beachcomber") (1938), based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham, in which his wife, Elsa Lanchester, co-starred; "St. Martin's Lane" (US title "Sidewalks of London"), about London street entertainers, which featured Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison; and "Jamaica Inn", with Maureen O'Hara and Robert Newton, about Cornish shipwreckers, based on Daphne du Maurier's novel, and the last film Alfred Hitchcock directed in Britain before moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s. The films produced were not commercially successful enough, and the company was saved from bankruptcy only when RKO Pictures offered Laughton the title role (Quasimodo)