Sat 2 Mar 2024
Movie Review: MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[20] Comments
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS. Columbia Pictures, 1945. Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Anita Bolster. Based on the book The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert. Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey. Director: Joseph H. Lewis.
A young woman in London, alone except for the landlady and a maid at her rooming house, and barely one male acquaintance, and needing money to pay the rent, finds what seems to be the perfect job – as a secretary/companion to a wealthy woman in the country. It quickly turns out to be not so perfect, though, as when she wakes up in her new residence, she discovers that she is essentially a prisoner and unable to leave the premises. She is also called by a new name and described to the servants as well to the local townspeople as recovering from a serious illness and often delusional.
As a premise for a tale to present-day audience, it’s one that’s hard to swallow, but once persuaded that yes, such a situation could happen (and even more so back in 1945), it’s a lot easier to start wondering instead what her captors (the somewhat looney tunes mother and son – a perfectly cast Dame May Whitty and George Macready) want with her, and more importantly, how she can get away from their tightly enforced grip.
All her attempts to escape or letting anyone else know she’s being held a prisoner end in failure, until – well, I won’t tell. Why should I? There’s no need to, I suppose, for one thing. It’s a minor tale, all in all, with only 65 minutes of running time. Anything longer than that then any of the suspension of disbelief you’ve invested in it fade away very very quickly. An hour plus is about as long as it could (should) have been, and it was.
Added Later: I watched this online on The Criterion Channel, where I found it in their current “Gothic Noir” collection. Is it Gothic? Definitely yes. Is it Noir? I’m not so sure about that. The story line has nothing to do with “noir” as applied to the written word. But if “noir” is taken to apply to moody, well-photographed black-and-white crime films, then yes.
March 3rd, 2024 at 1:10 am
The poise and polish of wonderful actor George MacCready. Never seen him in a role where he gave less than his level best. He can play hero, villain, victim, weakling, or brute as any picture demanded.
March 3rd, 2024 at 7:35 am
Macready’s career ran the gamut (as they say) from JULIUS CAESAR to THE MONSTER AND THE APE, and while I don’t say he was equally good in both, he approached them each with seriousness and professionalism.
In JULIA ROSS, he and Whitty make a team that reminds me of Lorre & Greenstreet!
March 3rd, 2024 at 7:54 am
Don’t forget his role in the TV series PEYTON PLACE, where some of us first saw him (as Martin Peyton). If I remember correctly, he was the one who made the critical remark about Mia Farrow’s “Peter Pan haircut” after she chopped her hair off, supposedly after a fight with then-husband Frank Sinatra. (Mia was 21 and Sinatra 50 when they entered their ill-fated, short-lived marriage.)
Also, there was a loose remake of JULIA ROSS called DEAD OF WINTER (1987), directed by Arthur Penn and starring Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall.
March 3rd, 2024 at 1:05 pm
Thanks, Jeff. “Loose” is the key word, but it’s what remaking a film 40 years later will do. Here’s a brief summary of it, taken from IMDB: “A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.”
You can find a much more detailed recounting of the story line on Wikipedia, from which I quote:
“Back at the house, Dr. Lewis says her imagination is running wild. Katie realizes that Mr. Murray has drugged her hot chocolate. In her room, she barricades the door with furniture before she passes out. As she sleeps, Mr. Murray enters her room from behind a mirror. Katie wakes up in a sleeping gown with a bandaged hand. Peeling off the bandages, she finds her left ring finger has been removed and screams in horror.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_of_Winter_(film)
March 3rd, 2024 at 3:41 pm
I have just discovered that Macready and Nina Foch also appeared together in a film called I LOVE A MYSTERY, based on the radio series. It’s also from 1945. I’m planning to watch it soon and when I do, I’ll of course report on it here.
March 3rd, 2024 at 4:22 pm
Lurv that rousing serial. So many exotic locations, though! Hard to imagine condensing it into one single flick.
Oh well. Just BTW: there’s an excellent new site to indulge in classic audio.
https://oldtime.radio/
Very efficiently free streams of shows at random, by-genre, or all-shows-in-a-series. You can also build custom selections and save them for later re-play.
March 3rd, 2024 at 9:42 pm
Following up on your reference to the ILAM movie, you said “Hard to imagine condensing it into one single flick.”
It turns out there were three ILAM movies. Relying on Wikipedia again:
“A 1945 mystery film called I Love A Mystery starred Jim Bannon as Jack, Barton Yarborough as Doc, George Macready, and Nina Foch. Reggie did not appear in the movies as he had been written out of the radio series. The movie was about a man who seeks protection after he predicts his own death in three days. Two more movies in the series starring Bannon and Yarborough followed in 1946: The Devil’s Mask and The Unknown.”
March 3rd, 2024 at 6:01 pm
After these titles, Nina Foch had a nice career but was entirely in support. The girl who loses the guy.
March 3rd, 2024 at 9:12 pm
From her Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Foch
“Nina Foch, born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock; April 20, 1924 – December 5, 2008) was an American actress who later became an instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.” [For EXECUTIVE SUITE.]
And also check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nina_Foch_performances
In 1945 in particular, JULIA ROSS was but one of seven films she appeared in.
March 3rd, 2024 at 9:36 pm
Exactly right. She played attractive women in secondary or even tertiary parts. Her presence felt opposite Gene Kelly in An American in Paris and Stewart Granger in Scaramouche.
March 3rd, 2024 at 11:43 pm
The titles mentioned above warm my heart to hear recalled. Stewart Granger! Who could forget him clumsily learning how to defend himself in Scaramouche.
ILAM: still can’t visualize it as a flick. They say it influenced Raiders, and I believe that. But Raiders doesn’t scratch the surface of ILAM. There was gifted/brilliant writing in those three soldiers-of-fortune. The OTR series often co-starred Mercedes McCambridge.
It was legendary for ‘temple of the vampires’ where the boys battled giant bats hanging from ropes, in a Guatemalan pyramid. Fans of McCambridge were still asking her about it around the time she made ‘Exorcist’.
I’d like to suggest it might make a great contemporary movie serial but reckon it just wouldn’t suit modern kiddies. No shapeshifting, no air-bending. Just brains ‘n brawn.
Back to Nina Foch: I admire flicks like ‘Executive Suite’ and ‘American in Paris’ but frankly can’t put a face to her name.
However, I’m wondering if this is somehow the same supporting dame I’ve seen countless episodes of Rockford, Columbo, & McCloud. A very thin actress with heavy, ash-color bangs and a tobacco-hardened voice. Is that her?
Seems like it might be.
March 4th, 2024 at 12:15 am
I agree with you about I Love A Mystery and Raiders. Raiders is childlike, and I suppose intentionally so. Too bad, a might have been.
March 4th, 2024 at 4:01 pm
I watched I Love a Mystery ages ago. As I recall, it had pretty cheap prduction values but worked well for what it was, and George Macready does a fine job in a “worm turns” kind of role. As to whether My Name Is Julia Ross is noir, it’s available on the Columbia Film Noir Classics III DVD box set, so someone (maybe a marketing guy) thought it would fit in. These days, noir is definitely in the eye of the beholder — or promoter.
March 4th, 2024 at 9:55 pm
“These days, noir is definitely in the eye of the beholder — or promoter.”
As true a statement as has ever been said on this blog, Jim.
March 5th, 2024 at 6:32 pm
Books on noir have almost always called Julia Ross noir.
When I see a Joseph H Lewis film for the second time, I usually notice countless details that I missed before.
Plus the film starts to have a musical quality. Everything starts to Flow, like a great piece of music.
March 5th, 2024 at 8:22 pm
When I watch a film for the first time, I concentrate on the story.
The second time around, I watch what the actors are doing.
It takes me a third time to notice what the director and camera are doing.
Few films get past the first time.
After all these comments — thanks everyone! — this one might meet the challenge. I’ll think about it.
March 6th, 2024 at 10:31 am
Steve,
Altman said, same as you, ‘you should always see a film twice, because the first time you are too worried with plot and what’s going to happen next. With a second viewing, you relax and watch the film at work.’ Not that I follow his advice. I’m generally in it for the story.
March 6th, 2024 at 4:44 pm
I Love A Mystery was smartly done despite being done on the cheap. No heavy handed sociological crapola.
March 7th, 2024 at 12:41 am
OK I’ve watched it, the first ILAM movie, and after just stage one, the story didn’t work for me. Too many flashbacks, too many loose ends, including the fate of the two women in the film. Well, I guess we know how one ended up, but only in an offhanded way. The two male leads, make it three, including Macready, were OK, given how stiff the two leads seemed to be. I haven’t yet watched it a second time, so stage three, the camera work and the job the director did, that’s still open-ended, but … pretty good from what I recall, especially with what I am sure was a very limited budget.
I may, or may not, write this up at longer length. Still thinking about it.
March 8th, 2024 at 10:23 pm
Macready and Foch were appearing in several of these well done B films in this period and outstanding in most of them.
And while I like the three ILAM movies, it is almost impossible to recreate what the radio show was like in any other medium. It was unique to the nature of serialized radio tales and difficult to realize completely in any other form as the ILAM made for TV movie with Les Crane, David Hartman, and Ida Lupino proved.