My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

Directed by Joseph H Lewis; produced by Wallace MacDonald

A young woman (Nina Foch), searching for a job, is hired as a secretary by an elderly woman (May Whitty), who has her new employee come to live with her and her son (George Macready). When she wakes after what she thinks is one night, the woman finds herself in a country house, having lost a day and being called a completely different name. Her identity stolen, a prisoner, and fearing the worst, she doesn’t have long to find a way out of her deadly predicament.

A short (65 minutes) ‘B’ picture, My Name is Julia Ross is almost ruined by the story; how much of it came from the novel The Woman in Red by the famous crime-writer Anthony Gilbert, I don’t know. As may be guessed from my first paragraph, the nefarious intentions of those who hire Foch are not long kept from the viewer, so I give nothing away in describing them. They are, in fact, revealed within minutes of Whitty and Macready appearing on the screen. Thus, one of the plot devices of similar movies – the doubt the audience, and the protagonist, have regarding somebody’s sanity – is immediately discarded. Foch seems to have been lately ill - her ‘recovery’ is mentioned, as is someone else’s appendix removal – but her mental or emotional state, other than anxiety over trying to find a job, is not in question. Indeed, that she herself believes the masquerade over her new identity is unimportant to her enemies.

Since the story deliberately does away with a possibly central cause of tension in the movie, it is up to other elements to create a successful film. Fortunately, they are up to the task. The script, while not particularly imaginative, creates a smart and sympathetic main character. At no point does Foch think that she is losing her mind. She knows something wicked is afoot, and she devotes her considerable intelligence to thwarting it. That numerous schemes for escape fail is due to bad luck and the nearly equal brains of her captors. That little time or effort is given to filling out her character detracts a little.

The acting also contributes. Foch, at the beginning of a long and varied entertainment career, is convincing as the heroine, someone thrown by circumstances upon her own resources; that she probably had to rely on them most of her young life is implied. May Whitty (credited as ‘Dame May Whitty’, having been made a dame of the Order of the British Empire for her charitable work in the Great War) gives a rare performance as a villainess. Even at eighty, she is lively and believable in her role. Macready’s performance, if not well-known, will be remembered once seen. His slightly goggle-eyed stare and calm demeanour, ready to vanish in a paradoxically emotionless rage, is chilling. And his nearly normal praise of the sea’s ability to keep silent indicates where his previous victim was deposited. (As a footnote, the heroine’s love-interest is played by Roland Varno. Coincidentally, he was born Dutch, as was Foch, and, like her, had a strong connection with the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia).)

While not in the first rank of thrillers, My Name is Julia Ross is a good entry in the Gothic/psychological melodrama sub-genre, thanks to the acting and characters. And, with its short running time, a viewer needs only an hour to be given an evening’s entertainment.