Easy Virtue (1926)/Jamaica Inn (1939)/The Lodger (1926)

   I was not a fan of this film.  I think it runs into the chasm of what used to be socially acceptable but isn't any more.  There was apparently a remake done in 2008 that Netflix keeps pushing on me.  I might give that one a try and see if it's any more palatable. 

Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) is divorced from her husband (Franklin Dyall) after he accuses her of infidelity with a painter (Eric Bransby Williams).  Fanning the flames of gossip, the deceased artist had left all his fortune to Larita.  Publically shamed, she hides out in the south of France where she meets good boy John Whittaker (Robin Irvine).  They marry and he takes her home to meet his extremely disapproving mother (Violet Farebrother).  Mrs. Whittaker doesn't know why she immediately dislikes her son's new wife but she's willing to just go with the feeling and makes Larita's life as miserable as possible.  John's younger sister (Dorothy Boyd) finds a picture of Larita in a magazine and rats her out as fast as she can.  Mrs. Whittaker orders Larita to stay away from the party she's throwing but Larita is tired of taking her crap.  She has her maid cut her dress to be just shy of immodest, then swans out to the ball.  She decides her husband has suffered enough and goes to get a divorce.  The End.

No, seriously, that's it.  She decides that she's brought enough shame upon him and leaves him, presumably so she can go die alone like scandalous divorcees are supposed to do.  This seems so alien to me and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

  Pretty much up until now, all the Hitchcock films have been romantic comedies of some sort or another.  Not this one.

Mary (Maureen O'Hara) has come to the Jamaica Inn on the coast of Cornwall from Ireland to live with her Aunt Patience (Marie Ney) after her family had died.  Unfortunately, the innkeeper (Leslie Banks) is slovenly, abusive, and also a wrecker.  Meaning, he and his crew intentionally douse warning lights, causing ships to crash on the rocks.  Then they recover all the merchandise and murder all the sailors.  The very night Mary arrives, the crew has decided to hang young Jem Trahearne (Robert Newton) for skimming.  Horrified, Mary cuts him loose and the two run off.  They seek assistance from the local lord, Sir Humphrey Pengallon (Charles Laughton), a cunning and fickle man who takes instant interest in our fair Mary.

This is a well-done film, especially the performance by Laughton, but I would have liked to see more humor as a relief from all the bleakness.  That may have just been a misplaced expectation on my part, however, after seeing so many light romances from the director.  

  Apparently, this was the film that launched Hitchcock's career.  It's still a pretty good one.

Someone known only as The Avenger is killing young blonde women in London.  Around the same time, a new lodger (Ivor Novello) takes up residence at the Bunting house.  The Buntings just so happen to have a young blonde daughter named Daisy (June, just June).  Mrs. Bunting (Marie Ault) starts to suspect that the young man upstairs might just be the killer.

Jealousy seems to be one of Hitchcock's favorite emotions, as it motivates a lot of his characters.  Malcolm Keen plays Daisy's cop boyfriend Joe as he is consumed by the green-eyed monster, becoming more and more suspicious of dark and brooding Ivor Novello.