Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

mark.waltz Don't let Dame May Witty's cute grandmotherly face fool you. She's out for no good in this delicious film noir sleeper where a fake employment agency is created for the most nefarious of schemes. George MacReady, the most sinister actor under contract to Columbia, is cast as her son whose mysterious past leads way to the necessity to hire Foch on as Witty's new secretary, in fact, a position in which they do not really need to fill. MacReady's the ultimate mama's boy, and Witty must take on certain characteristics she deplores in order to get him out of his latest mess. Where does Foch fit into all these plans? Well, unless you read the plot synopsis, you're better off not knowing, because that's half the fun here in watching everything unfold and all the cards fall into place.The sweet faced Nina Foch essays total confusion as she is thrown into a new life which she does not understand anything about. But all isn't letter perfect for MacReady, Witty and Anita Bolster as the severe looking housekeeper who posed as the employment agency. Witty, so lovable as the title character in "The Lady Vanishes" and so pompous (with a hidden side of compassion) as the town matron complaining about middle class people wearing "mink coats and no manners" in "Mrs. Miniver", gives one of her most stunning performances, and the lack of an Oscar nomination for her role is certainly a crime in itself. As for MacReady, this is definitely his most challenging performance, and those who only know him as the husband in "Gilda" will find him quite remarkable.When he declares about the rocky waters below the huge frightening mansion he's holding Foch prisoner in, "Beautiful isn't? Would you like to listen to the sea and hear what it says? It doesn't say anything, does it. That's what I like about the sea. It never tells its secrets, and it has many secrets", the film takes on an almost film noir variation of "Rebecca", "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre". Film Noir doesn't get any more Gothic than this, and even in smaller roles, the tiny cast is excellent. Roland Varno as Foch's possible rescuer, Doris Lloyd as the cockney landlady and especially Joy Harington as the thieving maid in Lloyd's boarding house give more to the haunting atmosphere. An above average remake, "Dead of Night" (with Mary Steenburgen), is equally as almost forgotten as this, genuinely one of those small little sleepers that has attracted a cult following and is starting to get the acclaim which it has long deserved.

MartinHafer "My Name is Julia Ross" is a very, very rare sort of picture. It was created with a very modest budget and cast in order to be the second, or 'B' picture at a double-feature. However, when the film was screened, people liked the film so much that at many showings, it was the premier picture! This is rather unheard of and says a lot about the story from Muriel Bolton and Anthony Gilbert--as well as the direction by Joseph H. Lewis.The film begins with Julia (Nina Foch) looking for work. She's frustrated in her search and is excited when she sees that a new employment agency has opened. They interview her for a job and during the course of the interview, they have some strange questions--does she have any family, does she have a boyfriend and the like. Well, she can answer no to most of the questions but lies about the boyfriend part--telling them she has no one in her life. They are thrilled and offer her a job. Here's the bizarre twist. She suddenly finds herself drugged! And, she wakes up two days later in a prison-like mansion!! And, these strangers begin referring to her by another woman's name! She insists that she IS Julia Ross and demands to be set free but they treat her like she is insane. Her 'mother-in-law' (Dame May Witty) and 'husband' (George Macready) obviously have something awful in mind--but what? And, with all the neighbors having been told that she is a schizophrenic, she cannot convince any of them that she is telling the truth! What's next? See the film for yourself.Th bottom line is that everything works well in this film--the acting, writing, direction, sets. The only negative, and it's a minor one, but back in the 1940s, Hollywood had the Production Code and according to this code, evil had to be punished so viewers know that somehow things WILL work out for good. A similar film that works even better is the 1960s French film "Diaboliquement Vôtre". Likewise a man has been kidnapped and folks work very hard to convince him he's someone else. But because there is no code to restrict the film, the ending is VERY dark and more satisfying. Still, both are exceptional films and I recommend both very highly.

writers_reign At sixty-five minutes this may well have provided a satisfactory 'B' picture element to a typical double bill risible though it seems today.There's a stunning opening shot of (what will turn out to be the heroine) walking away from camera in the pouring rain and had they been able to sustain that feel this may well have been one to reckon with. Alas, it loses credibility almost at once - certainly when viewed in 2010 - as Lewis crams in exposition and progression in double time so we learn that Julia Ross (Nine Foch) is broke, owes three weeks rent, has just lost a boyfriend to marriage (then, within thirty seconds learns that he couldn't go through with the wedding), sees an ad from a new employment agency in the newspapers, applies, is interviewed and hired for a live-in secretary post on the strength of the fact that she is single, no boyfriend, no parents, no friends or, to put it another way, no one is going to miss her when the new employers turn her lights out. It moves so quickly that at the time the audience wouldn't have had time to reflect on how ludicrous it was but the three leads, Foch, Dame May Witty and George MacReady are all up to snuff and seen today it makes a nice curio.

Dewey1960 MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS is a mesmerizing 1945 B thriller from Joseph H. Lewis, arguably one of the very finest directors of Hollywood noir films. This 65 minute Gothic oddity from Columbia Pictures came after Lewis' lengthy apprenticeship as the helmer of a string of poverty row westerns, East Side Kids comedies, horror melodramas (including the incredibly bizarre Bela Lugosi shocker THE INVISIBLE GHOST) and standard studio B product (SECRETS OF A CO-ED, BOMBS OVER BURMA, THE FALCON IN SAN FRANCISCO, etc)---all of which set the stage rather nicely for what was to come from the enormously talented and inventive Mr. Lewis. MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (as well as SO DARK THE NIGHT from the following year) introduced a director who had mastered the rare and delicate art telling a dark and probing tale swiftly and efficiently on the most modest of budgets. Later Lewis productions like GUN CRAZY (1949) and THE BIG COMBO (1955), despite the expanded scope of their narrative structure, continued to rely upon deft, lucid camera work and effective low-key lighting. And very modest resources.MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS probably owes more to the tradition of British mysteries (it's set in a studio-bound England) than it does to conventional film noir attitudes and trappings. A young woman (Nina Foch) agrees to take a position in the home of an elderly woman (Dame Mae Witty). Two days after her arrival she awakens from a deep sleep in a completely strange house and, mysteriously enough, with a brand new identity---that of the old woman's daughter-in-law. Told that she's been the victim of a nervous breakdown, she struggles to grasp the utter and seemingly hopeless nature of her predicament. But before long she begins to piece together the strange and troubling truth behind this dark mystery, that her "husband" (the always menacing George Macready) most probably murdered his real wife and that she's been duped into participating in a harrowing and sinister scheme. Much of what distinguishes this otherwise modest tale are the indelible touches that Lewis brings to the production, marking it as the first of his truly serious endeavors as a film director.