tbarnes1960 A real production line movie that has its moments, but ultimately not really worth it. Best parts are when Dame May tells the as always super creepy McCready to "Put that knife away" . Those scenes are a hoot! However, those are countered by some of the worst acting on film by Joy Harington as Bertha the housekeeper. Other than hiring an actor who had never heard the English language could those lines be delivered any worse. It has decent atmosphere and cinematography, but in this case director John H Lewis, who in his IMDb bio is said to be famous for elevating mediocre content with great style, does not pull off a cinematic miracle. However, if you watch another of his films THE BIG COMBO (1955) there are some amazing examples of just that.

utgard14 Exceptional B movie considered for decades to be the greatest B movie ever made. If not the best, it's certainly near the top of the list. Nina Foch gives an excellent performance as Julia Ross, an unsuspecting woman who answers an ad for a job and finds herself the hostage of a deranged man and his domineering mother. George Macready and Dame May Witty make for memorable villains, sinister and creepy. The film is only sixty-five minutes long and director Joseph H. Lewis makes the most of it, keeping the film moving at a brisk pace but not rushed. This is definitely one of the 1940's films I would put on a must-see list for those interested in trying out older films.

juanandrichard I first saw this movie a few years ago, and totally fell under its spell. The cast from the leads Nina Foch, Dame May Witty, George Macready down to such unforgettable character players as Anita Bolster, Queenie Leonard and Doris Lloyd are perfect. I think it is important to see a movie in the context of when it was filmed, rather than from a standpoint of the current day. Regarding the supposed "passivity" of the Foch character, even in today's world of "women's liberation," if one is constantly drugged, it would be difficult for anyone to be other than passive. As to the movie itself, I found it to be a very good "woman in distress" type of thriller and, on its own terms, succeeded immensely. FYI, this movie opened by itself at the Ambassador Theatre in NYC and although not considered a major movie, was on the Top Ten Movies List of 1945.

Michael_Elliott 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.