The Cinemateca Portuguesa is unimaginatively rerunning for the umpteenth time a random series of 30s/60s B movies. The MacMahonian would be remiss in not pointing out to the curatorial crystalization long threatening its much-beloved institution, but I for one don’t mind much, as it gave the opportunity to acquaint myself with the work of Joseph H Lewis.
My Name is Julia Ross was the 26th feature film directed by Joseph H Lewis, B Movie stalwart whose CV reads like a tailor-made snapshot Classic Hollywood Life: born in Brooklyn in 1897 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, moved to Hollywood in the late 20s to work in the film industry, graduated to features director in the late 30s and proceeded to direct mostly B noirs, thrillers and Westerns, then moved to TV directing in the late 50s, finally retiring in the mid 60s. Retirement coincided with Cahiers reappraisal and since then Lewis has been a film buff household name. My formidable cinematic erudition notwithstanding, I had till last week never seen one of his films.
But I can't say I didn’t like what I saw. My Name is Julia Ross tells the very improbable story of eponymous (Nina Foch) lured into a fake job advertisement for secretary camouflaging a secret plot to shanghai a proxy for the accidentally murdered wife of a psycho (George Macready) with the connivance of his mother (Dame May Witty) and a household of very appropriate goth/noir characters, maxime magnificently aquiline-nosed Anita Sharp-Bolster.
Lewis' reputed camera virtuosity is here understated, although certainly slick for B standards, but his workaday credentials remarkable: with nary a superfluous shot or camera movement, the film packs it in at 64 minutes, and maintains throughout enough dramatic tension to distract form the plots preposterousness.
My Name is Julia Ross, or at least its shooting script, should be required study in film schools.