Very Cool!!!

A different way of telling a story

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This Gothic noir, with its story of a woman-in-danger who's trapped in a creepy mansion, seems to inhabit the same territory as Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940) and George Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944). Unlike its predecessors however, it's a low-budget offering with a relatively short running time. It's fast-moving, suspenseful and full of snappy dialogue and features a cast of colourful characters who are involved in a particularly evil conspiracy. Director Joseph H Lewis' reputation as a talented filmmaker was cemented by the great commercial success that this movie achieved and his skills in creating a brooding atmosphere and making effective use of close-ups is especially apparent in this tense melodrama.Julia Ross (Nina Foch) is a young lady in London who, after a short period of ill-health, finds herself three weeks behind on her rent and out of work. When she sees a newspaper advertisement for a new employment agency, she immediately goes to visit the agency's office and is interviewed by the rather severe-looking Mrs Sparkes (Anita Sharp-Bolster). After establishing that Julia doesn't have any family ties or a boyfriend, Mrs Sparkes decides that she would be suitable for work as a live-in private secretary to her client, Mrs Hughes (Dame May Witty). Mrs Hughes subsequently approves the appointment and at her insistence, Julia moves into her new employer's house that evening.Next morning, Julia wakes up in a strange bedroom in a mansion overlooking the sea in Cornwall and is told by Mrs Hughes and her son Ralph (George Macready) that she's Ralph's wife Marion and when Mrs Sparkes appears to be working at the house as Mrs Hughes' housekeeper, Julia becomes extremely alarmed and recognises that she's being held prisoner. When Julia protests about her situation, no-one takes any notice because the staff have all been told that she's recovering from a mental breakdown and her numerous attempts to escape all end in failure.Despite the treatment that she's subjected to, Julia never doubts her own sanity or her identity and is reassured in these matters when she discovers a secret passage and overhears Mrs Hughes and Ralph discussing their plans to murder her as part of a scheme to cover up a previous murder. Julia's only chance of escape then seems to rest in her own ability to outwit her captors.As the psychotic villain of the piece, George Macready conveys all the madness and menace that Ralph Hughes embodies as he indulges in his unhealthy obsession with knives and consistently fails to control his violent temper. Dame May Witty is very credible as her character who externally seems to be a typically posh elderly lady but is in fact, cruel, amoral and the mastermind of an extremely wicked conspiracy. Nina Foch, on the other hand, does a great job by showing her fear at times but also by being convincingly natural on other occasions.The disorientation and fear that Julia experiences in this movie are well reinforced visually by the use of tilted camera angles and close-ups and her state of being imprisoned is also emphasised by symbols such as the bars on her bedroom window and a shadow-grid on the staircase wall. Similarly, the shadowy compositions within the mansion contribute to the uncomfortable claustrophobic atmosphere that compliments Julia's predicament perfectly.

a nice film. almost naive and not very credible but seductive for the plot who reminds Hitchcock, for cast - Dame May Whitby could not be a surprise - and for the flavor of a lost period. a film noir like a lot of others, it is special for the lovely construction of tension - small bits , little details who prepares the spectator for the heart of story. Nina Foch seems be the ideal Julia Ross and the secret is the clever use of a lot of clichés of time. and sure, a not insignificant detail is the music, the house near the sea, the tools who gives inspired taste to a film noir. the best thing - balance between pieces. not great but nice. and, in that case, it is a real good point.

This is a nifty little suspense film...never mind that it is somewhat improbably (all the more so since there are holes in the plot)...it's still entertaining.It was a rather cheap B-picture, but that didn't keep one actress from shining through -- Dame May Witty as the mother who is protecting her adult son from being discovered as the murderer of his wife. To do so, they kidnap a young lady looking for a job (Nina Foch), and publicly treat her as having had a nervous breakdown, with the intent of murdering her and making it look like suicide so they can identify her body as the long-dead wife. Witty was always pretty interesting in films, and no less so here. Foch is a little less interesting, but does okay...sometimes it seems as if she is sleepwalking...but I don't mean that in terms of the plot. The son is played nastily by George Macready.It's a rather short film, just over and hour, so it moves along at a good pace, and it makes you want to forgive the the unevenness of the script. At least until the ending, which is about as bad as any I've ever seen in a film. Still, it's an interesting suspense film which could have done extremely well with a better director. I'll give it a "7" barely, although the ending made we want to drop it to a "6".

Joseph H. Lewis was one of the finest directors of film noir. This is surely his best.It doesn't have some of the standard features of what we now call film noir. Though American-made, it is set entirely in England. It lacks gangsters. It lacks a femme fatale. It does not lack crime.The title character answers an ad. She is overjoyed that she'll be making some money as a secretary. Instead, she wakes up days later as the pawn in a frightening plot. Only a very strong person could survive such a terrifyingly unsettling ordeal. And Nina Foch gives the sense of a strong woman as Julia.Part of the excitement comes from casting against type: Ms. Foch has an elegant manner. She is no screaming, cowering victim. She is actually a bit icy and patrician, albeit impecunious. This makes her character's plight all the more believable.Surely the single most fascinating element is the casting of Dame May Witty. She was (and is) probably most famous for the charming title character in "The Lady Vanishes." She has a sweet manner and a harmless, slightly dithering manner. But here she is far from a heroine.George Macready is excellent as her extremely troubled son. The whole cast, in fact, is superb.It seems that this famous and brilliant movie was made almost by accident. Undoubtedly the director knew exactly what he was doing. But he did it on a low budget. That is the thrill and charm of film noir, the real film noir: It is small, convincingly lowlife, and, in this case, unforgettable.