A High Wind in Jamaica (film)

A High Wind in Jamaica
Original film poster by Howard Terpning
Directed by	Alexander Mackendrick
Produced by	John Croydon
Written by	Richard Hughes
Screenplay by	Stanley Mann Ronald Harwood Denis Cannan
Based on	A High Wind in Jamaica (novel) (1929)
Starring	Anthony Quinn James Coburn Lila Kedrova
Music by	Larry Adler Mike LeRoy
Cinematography	Douglas Slocombe
Edited by	Derek York
Production company	Twentieth Century-Fox
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Company
Release date	1965 (1965)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

A High Wind in Jamaica is a 1965 DeLuxe Color film, based on the novel of the same name, and directed by Alexander Mackendrick for the 20th Century-Fox studio. It stars Anthony Quinn and James Coburn as the pirates who capture five children.

Other cast members include Deborah Baxter, Nigel Davenport, Isabel Dean, Lila Kedrova, Kenneth J. Warren, and Gert Frobe. One of the child actors is the author Martin Amis.

The film is regarded highly today because of Mackendrick's direction and Quinn's lead performance as the pirate captain whose relationship with the children betokens a subtle change in his character, finally leading to his downfall and the pirates' end.

Mackendrick (1912–1993) was best known as a director of the Ealing comedies The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), as well as The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), now recognized as a masterpiece. The material in A High Wind in Jamaica afforded the director an opportunity to combine a light touch with serious drama. Essentially, what makes the film fascinating is the theme of children growing up and their contact with a world of adults (the pirates) who act as if they are grown-up children.

A hurricane hits the isle of Jamaica in 1870. The Thorntons (Nigel Davenport and Isabel Dean), parents of five children, feel it is time to send the children to England for a more civilized upbringing and education.