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Emlyn Williams: A Fan Tribute

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Poll results
The original novel
3 votes
 
 100%
The 1939 film
0 votes
 
 0%
Total: 3 voters.  Total votes: 3.  Max items per vote allowed: 1.
 
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Registered: 10-2006
Location: Northeastern U.S.A.
Posts: 101
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Poll: Which Jamaica Inn did you like better?


For those who have finished the book and seen the movie, which did you prefer? (Please give your reasons and say which one you saw/read first in the discussion below.) This topic may include spoilers.

Last edited by vampyrate, 10/11/2007, 2:34 pm


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"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
10/11/2007, 2:29 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 
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Registered: 10-2006
Location: Northeastern U.S.A.
Posts: 101
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Re: Poll: Which Jamaica Inn did you like better?


I saw the movie first, looking for Robert Newton (but didn't recognize him till my second viewing), and fell in love with Emlyn Williams's performance as Harry instead. That led me to reading the book, which is almost nothing like the film but is far superior. The novel spotlights (and contrasts) the more intriguing characters of Jem and Joss Merlyn and their relationship with Mary. Harry is even more interesting (and menacing) in the book, one of the few characters who I think remained fairly faithful to du Maurier's version. And the true villain, who I found much scarier than Squire Pengallan, isn't revealed until the very end. (OK, one more thing I like about the movie: It contains no real spoilers for the book!) I also love the bleak, isolated moorland setting (which is not conveyed in the film), and du Maurier's descriptions made me fall in love with Cornwall.

This is probably my all-time favorite novel, while I primarily love the movie (and watch it over and over again) for Emlyn Williams's scene-stealing characterization. (And that's a pretty amazing feat when you consider his competition was Charles Laughton and Robert Newton!)

Last edited by vampyrate, 10/11/2007, 2:51 pm


---
"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
10/11/2007, 2:45 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 
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Registered: 12-2007
Location: In the pub with Bob & Keith
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Re: Poll: Which Jamaica Inn did you like better?


I view them now as two completely different stories. I love the film and I love the book for different things. I do prefer the book because I love the relationship between Mary and Jem. Mary is portrayed as a much stronger character in the book than she is in the film.

It occurred to me that Charles Laughton's line "I expect you're crying because you're not going to marry a young man who will spawn you a dozen snivelling brats" (or words to that effect) could actually not be further from Mary's actual character in the book. She said repeatedly that she didn't want to get married and she didn't want to have children with anyone, she wanted to work on her farm and live 'a man's life'.

I do think, though, that if the film had remained faithful to the book - and Jem had been Jem Merlyn and not Jem Trehearne, that Emlyn could have played a very convincing Jem. He was great as Harry the Pedlar but I couldn't visualise Emlyn in the role as I was reading the book, whereas at times certainly I could just hear Emlyn say some of Jem's lines while I was reading some of his scenes.

I have to say... the line "I say shut your misbegotten mouths, both of you"... is possibly the most exciting line in the whole film - or at least a close second after the moment when Robert Newton threatened to take Maureen O'Hara's dress off her!!

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I never understood the invention of water - it ain't fit to touch and it ain't fit to drink neither!!

Soldier's Three
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