At sixty-five minutes this may well have provided a satisfactory 'B' picture element to a typical double bill risible though it seems today.There's a stunning opening shot of (what will turn out to be the heroine) walking away from camera in the pouring rain and had they been able to sustain that feel this may well have been one to reckon with. Alas, it loses credibility almost at once - certainly when viewed in 2010 - as Lewis crams in exposition and progression in double time so we learn that Julia Ross (Nine Foch) is broke, owes three weeks rent, has just lost a boyfriend to marriage (then, within thirty seconds learns that he couldn't go through with the wedding), sees an ad from a new employment agency in the newspapers, applies, is interviewed and hired for a live-in secretary post on the strength of the fact that she is single, no boyfriend, no parents, no friends or, to put it another way, no one is going to miss her when the new employers turn her lights out. It moves so quickly that at the time the audience wouldn't have had time to reflect on how ludicrous it was but the three leads, Foch, Dame May Witty and George MacReady are all up to snuff and seen today it makes a nice curio.
Review of My Name Is Julia Ross
