My Name Is Julia Ross

Tight, quick little thriller where a family with a dark secret imprisons a young woman and attempts to gaslight her. Some clever battles of wits going on, with a strong performance by Nina Foch, an uncharacteristically menacing one by Dame May Whitty, and a creepy one by George Macready. Admittedly, nothing here is going to wow you, but it's a mighty enjoyable morsel of fun.

Wastes little time, but that doesn't keep it from making an impression. I'm not sure I'd call Foch's performance great, but the camera loves her and she's given such a strong role that it's hard not to be wowed. She's very sympathetic and her alternating turns between bewildered, defiant and resigned are all perfectly believable. The mystery is revealed bit by bit and that raises the tension nicely to a wonderful ending.

A classic low budget thriller. Foch is beautiful and very good, Whitty has a rare opportunity to be a baddie (and succeeds admirably) and George Macready gives what is probably his creepiest performance. Which of course is very creepy indeed.

A thriller that's nowhere nearly as clever as it thinks it is -- with a lot of "suspense" built around things the heroine tries that you know will somehow fail because otherwise the movie would be over. Much of the plot is also dependent upon one or more characters behaving like idiots at a crucial point (several times) -- including one of the dumbest murder attempts I have ever seen. The presence of George Macready made me wish I was seeing _Paths of Glory_ again instead

It's nice to see a movie where the character does every logical action in their situation rather than mill around looking worried. Pretty good thriller, short and to the point.

Insubstantial Gothic thriller, best sought out for Burnett Guffey's cinematography.

This really got me. It's a bit predictable, but it does the whole film noir by-numbers thing perfectly.

Nice take on gaslighting, where a mother and son attempt to convince a girl that she's crazy, but she never believes them even for an instant. Good because of her strength, the entire film (and it's about an hour long) features her attempt to escape from them.

Aside from being completely absurd and convoluted, the central mystery tips its hand far too early, so there's no real tension aside from the will-she-won't-she-escape, which I think you can guess the answer to. Points for style and merciful brevity, I suppose.

The first ten minutes showed promising signs of a suspenseful Hitchcockian thriller, but it gets very silly very quickly. The screenplay is absolutely absurd and most of Foch's escape attempts are hilariously bad. The cinematography has some nice touches, but it lacks any kind of psychological edge because of how implausible it all is.

Enjoyable Gothic noir that steals a lot from prior stories of the genre. There really isn't a single standout scene, and the resolution lasts approximately thirty seconds. In its favor, though, is that it gets to the point quickly and effectively, and the sets (and lighting) set the mood quite well.

Trágico Álibi estreava há 75 anos nos EUA. Uma espécie de Rebecca hardcore ao contrário, dá para ver esse filme como um duplo hitchcockiano, mais uma excelente pedida no rol de noires do Lewis. Box Versátil Filme Noir Volume 9.

Quaint and melodramatic, but pointed, credible, and fairly scary. Upbeat ending is totally inappropriate but par for the course. Lacks a distinct vision or even just the one standout sequence or performance that could have taken it from good to great.

Short and simple but effective.

My Name Is Julia Ross was very competently made by Joseph H. Lewis. A director who hadn't exactly impressed up to that point. He made solid programmers, but none of them had been anything remarkable. Here he showed he was a director you could count on, for this was a tightly knitted thriller with Nina Foch kidnapped and posed as someone's mentally ill wife at a old dark house. This is only 65 minutes long, yet fits in all you need for such dark hostage dilemma. Not to mention elaborately shot.

Solid Noir / woman in peril film which was an important showcase for director Lewis. It is also a prime example of how much they were able to fit into a 65 min film. That's something that the film makers of today could learn from. Still, I wish they had taken extra 15 mins to deepen the characters and especially extend the ending which has a rushed feel to it. The old house (set) allows some moody gothic cinematography which is also supported by effective exterior scenes.