My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)

Director:

Joseph H. Lewis

Writers:

Anthony Gilbert (novel)
Muriel Roy Bolton (writer)

Release Date:

8 November 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

She went to sleep as a secretary ... and woke up a madman's "bride"!

Plot:

Some sources cite this as an early example of British film noir, which is rather interesting since it...

Plot Keywords:

Secret Passage | Mother Son Relationship | Murder Plot | Black Cat | Kidnapped

Cast

Nina Foch	...	Julia Ross
Dame May Whitty	...	Mrs. Hughes
George Macready	...	Ralph Hughes
Roland Varno	...	Dennis Bruce
Anita Sharp-Bolster	...	Sparkes (as Anita Bolster)
Doris Lloyd	...	Mrs. Mackie

Also Known As:

The Woman in Red (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sparkes calls Mrs. Hughes from the employment agency, she begins dialing the phone with the writing end of her pencil. In the next shot she's dialing with the eraser end.

Quotes:

Julia Ross: What do you want?
Ralph Hughes: That's not a very friendly way for a wife to greet her husband.
Julia Ross: Wife!
Ralph Hughes: Please don't be afraid of me. For awhile today, I thought we were going to be friends, the way we used to be.
Julia Ross: Why don't you stop this farce?
Ralph Hughes: It's not a farce. I've always loved you, Marion. Or would it make any difference if I called you Julia?
Julia Ross: Get out of here! Stop it!
[She calls for the maid]
Julia Ross: Alice!
[Ralph kisses her roughly. She slaps him and screams for the maid again as Ralph furiously tries to push her out of the window. The maid enters the room suddenly, and Ralph realizes he must cover up his murderous intentions]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Remade as Dead of Winter (1987)

Needs to be Rediscovered

My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Intense thriller has a broke woman (Nina Foch) accepting a live-in job where she is to work as a secretary for a kind woman (Dame May Witty) and her son (George Macready). The woman shows up at the house but wakes up the next morning with the mom and son trying to tell her that she's his long lost wife. What's really going on is that they're going to hold this woman captive in hopes of driving her crazy. This here is a film I had never heard about until it came up on Turner Classic Movies and host Robert Osbourne wasn't lying when he said it needed a new crowd to discover it. This "B" movie from Columbia runs a very fast paced 66-minutes and for the most part it's one of the best of its type. The film has an ultra low-budget but that just adds tot he entertainment because it has to rely on its story, which is a pretty strong one and we also get some very strong performances. What works best is without question the story because driving someone crazy has always been a part of movies but the way it plays out here is pretty tense and makes for some very thrilling moments. The attempts at escape, the trying to convince people she's sane and so on just makes for some great entertainment. Foch clearly steals the film as the woman facing death and who must out smart her kidnappers. Foch has a certain quality that makes us care for her but at the same time she comes off very strong and this benefits her character a lot. Both Witty and Macready are perfect as well and they make for some very memorable villains. The evilness and coldness that both display while also appearing so calm and sweet was great fun to watch. Some people have called this a noir and perhaps there are elements of it but it would also serve well in the horror genre as there's an underlying creepiness built by the atmosphere. The Gothic settings are certainly a decade or so before they'd become popular and the mother/son relationship is being done long before PSYCHO. It's certainly a shame this movie isn't better known but perhaps that'll change in the next few years.