MY NAMES IS JULIA ROSS is a neat little thriller from Columbia later remade in '87 as DEAD OF WINTER with Mary Steenburgen as the unfortunate girl who finds herself prisoner in a strange household.
Here it's NINA FOCH who answers an employment agency ad and ends up in a household ruled by DAME MAY Witty and GEORGE MACREADY--and a plan that must have seemed daring and original when the story first appeared in '45.
Seems that she wakes up after a drugged night of sleep and finds out she has a new identity--no longer Julia Ross. Macready declares that he's her husband and Dame May Witty calls her by a different name. The two of them are conspiring to keep her there until their ultimate plan is carried out. Foch, of course, intends to get to the bottom of the thing and free herself from their hold on her.
What really hurts the story is the manufactured ending which is much too abrupt and too full of coincidence and loopholes to be believable. But still, while you're watching the story unfold, it does have its share of tension and suspense.
Personally, I prefer the more elaborately plotted remake with Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall which came along in the '80s, called DEAD OF WINTER.
Here it's NINA FOCH who answers an employment agency ad and ends up in a household ruled by DAME MAY Witty and GEORGE MACREADY--and a plan that must have seemed daring and original when the story first appeared in '45.
Seems that she wakes up after a drugged night of sleep and finds out she has a new identity--no longer Julia Ross. Macready declares that he's her husband and Dame May Witty calls her by a different name. The two of them are conspiring to keep her there until their ultimate plan is carried out. Foch, of course, intends to get to the bottom of the thing and free herself from their hold on her.
What really hurts the story is the manufactured ending which is much too abrupt and too full of coincidence and loopholes to be believable. But still, while you're watching the story unfold, it does have its share of tension and suspense.
Personally, I prefer the more elaborately plotted remake with Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall which came along in the '80s, called DEAD OF WINTER.