COEURS NOIRS Day 11: My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

My Name is Julia Ross (1945) film thoughts… I threw this one in the DVD player at random, not knowing anything about it. The very beautiful Nina Koch, plays the title character, a single London woman who is down on her luck and is about to get evicted from the slum she lives in. She answers a help wanted ad and viewed just right for the job, being in a live-in private secretary for a rich Mrs. Hughes. The only stipulation is she needs to accept right away and move in that night. Strangely, Mrs. Hughes, her son and the “Help Wanted” lady have ulterior moves and basically drug and kidnap her. She awakes in a seaside mansion and is told she is Marion Hughes, the wife of the son…and we are just getting started.

This was a neat little film (about 70 minutes), tightly scripted and well acted. The entire film after Julia’s abduction is her trying to come with ways to escape. The captors have their plan well in hand and each character is well defined. I was surprised to see such a dark depiction of the son, he is really screwed up. Sadly, this film is only currently available in the TCM Film Noir Classics 3 DVD set, which is a bit pricey, but worth the effort and cost to see it. I loved it.