Blu-ray Release: My Name is Julia Ross

By
Laurence
– March 1, 2019Find Others: Blu-ray, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: ,

Blu-ray Release Date: Feb. 12, 2019
Price: Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Arrow/MVD

After a promising start on Poverty Row quickies, Joseph H. Lewis (The Big Combo) made 1945’s crafty noir My Name is Julia Ross, his first film at Columbia, and established himself as a director to watch.

The morning after Julia Ross (Nina Foch, Executive Suite) takes a job in London as secretary to wealthy widow Mrs Williamson Hughes (Dame May Whitty, The Lady Vanishes), she wakes up in a windswept Cornish mansion, having been drugged. Mrs Hughes and her volatile son, Ralph (George Macready, Gilda), attempt to gaslight Julia into believing she is Ralph’s wife, Marion. Her belongings have been destroyed, the windows barred and the locals believe that she is mad. Will Julia be able to escape before she falls prey to the Hughes’ sinister charade? And what happened to the real Marion Hughes?

A briskly paced and brilliantly stylized mystery, this Gothic-tinged Hitchcockian breakout hit proved to be so popular that Columbia promoted it to A-feature status.

Grabbing its audience from the start, My Name Is Julia Ross immediately cemented Lewis’ place in the noir pantheon, and anticipated the elaborate identity-based deceptions found in future classic thrillers like Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Brian De Palma’s Obsession.

Oh, and those familiar with Arthur Penn’s 1987 thriller Dead of Winter will recognize that it’s a loose but obvious remake of Julia Ross.

Arrow’s pristine new Blu-ray of the film includes the following:

  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Commentary by noir expert Alan K. Rode
  • Identity Crisis: Joseph H. Lewis at Columbia – The Nitrate Diva (Nora Fiore) provides the background and an analysis of the film
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow
  • FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and critic Adrian Martin

 

Buy or Rent My Name is Julia Ross

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.