…Alfred Hitchcock and Jamaica Inn (both Hitchcock’s and Du Maurier’s.)  After I washed out on reading Outlander, I was literaryily adrift. I reread my Hammet, I reread my Gibson, but not very much of either and not very often.  Then one day while perusing through my DVDs in an attempt to find something entertaining/familiar (so that I could draw without too many distractions caused by watching a new movie,) I found my Hitchcock collections, and started there.  I’ve all but six of Hitchcock’s movies, and that final collection is on my Amazon wishlist, I’m just that little bit too lazy to order it right now.

I enjoy Hitchcock’s British films, dare I say, slightly more, than most of his Hollywood output.  ‘Rear Window’ I can watch a million times and never be bored, ‘The Birds,’ ‘Rope,’ and ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (newer not older,) are once-a-year flicks.  Anything else after he moved west is worth only a very occasional viewing. ‘Young and Innocent,’ ’39 Steps,’ Sabotage,’ ‘Secret Agent,’ huge fan of all of them, and while not on the same level as ‘Rear Window,’ easily more frequently watchable than ‘The Birds’ and the rest of them.  His other early stuff, ‘Juno and the Paycock,’ ‘Rich and Strange,’ ‘Blackmail,’ et cetera, meh, not so much.

However, for the first time ever, I finally watched his ‘Jamaica Inn,’ and only because I found, and devoured the book. Sometimes, you’re looking for something and you don’t know what it is, but when you find it, it’s amazing. ‘Jamaica’ was everything I had been listlessly searching for, adventure, melodrama, cold winter storms, crazy-evil vicars, Cornwall (which now I want to retire too, because it sounds so bleakly, depressingly fantastic,) EVERYTHING.  First book I’ve read in quite some time when I was sad that is was over. ‘Jamaica Inn’ the movie was good, but not my favorite.  I’ll need to watch it a couple more times before assigning to a rewatchability list.

The book though, great stuff, definitely more Du Maurier on my too read eventually list, I would highly recommend everyone do the same.

P.S. My ‘Too-Read-Eventually’ list is also incredibly short so feel free to share any suggestions you might have as well.