Alfred Hitchcock's last British film before leaving for Hollywood.
Orphaned Mary Yelland (Maureen O'Hara, in her first major role)
arrives at a lonely Cornish coaching inn run by her brutal uncle
Joss (Leslie Banks) — headquarters of a gang that wrecks ships on
the rocks and murders the survivors. Charles Laughton, who also
produced, plays the local squire Sir Humphrey Pengallan with
deliberate, scenery-chewing menace. Adapted from Daphne du
Maurier's novel, the production was famously contentious — Laughton
reshaped scenes around himself — but the wreckers' coast, the inn,
and O'Hara's debut charisma carry it. The film entered the public
domain through non-renewal of copyright.
Crime · Adventure · Drama
