Jamaica Inn Page #2

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JAMAICA INN EP1 FIRST REVISION SET PINK 25.9.13

5

-to see that Launceston seems for all the world like a

frontier town from the Wild West.

DRAGOONS; PROSTITUTES; grimy TIN AND COPPER MINERS, chewing *

sticks; toothless old MEN; weather beaten FISHERMAN; and

young, rugged CHARMERS; all poor, most rough, spilling out of

the inn, drinking beer from mugs or tankards.

Fiddle music plays from somewhere. The small surrounding

houses are built of cold, grey Cornish granite.

It’s a long way from the twee morality of her home and MARY

is afraid, their eyes upon her as she steps around a MAN

who’s unconscious on the ground, and looks to see that the

other PASSENGERS have gone inside the bar.

As MARY hesitates to follow, unaccustomed to bars, a

uniformed Customs Riding Officer, LEGASSIK pulls up

-a filthy MAN in the back of his horse-drawn cart bleeding

from a wound to the leg, his hands and feet bound.

The COACH DRIVER peers inside the open-backed wagon with

interest as LEGASSIK climbs down -

CORNISH DRIVER:

Smuggler, is e?

LEGASSIK:

(yes)

Ten pounds King’s ransom’s what he

is. Ten pound of ale…

LEGASSIK goes inside. The SMUGGLER sees MARY peer at him, and

spits - making her recoil.

MARY decides the inn can’t be worse than it is out here, so

she heads inside.

INT. BAR, ‘THE FLEECE’ INN - EVENING 12

MARY enters the bar, head down to avoid attention from the

mostly MALE DRINKERS.

She moves into the shadows behind the other PASSENGERS from

her coach.

But she darts a glance at the DRINKERS and her eyes alight on-

-a roughly handsome man, JEM MERLYN, 30.

Unlike everyone else, he seems alone, content with his own

company, a bright impertinence and easy charm about him, but

in the gloom a CHEAP LOOKING WOMAN, a prostitute, moves close

to him and runs a finger down his chest and whispers

something suggestive in his ear.

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JAMAICA INN EP1 FIRST REVISION SET PINK 25.9.13

6

JEM catches MARY’s eye as the WOMAN rubs his leg.

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