MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
B&W, 1945, 65 mins. 2 secs.
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Starring Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Anita Bolster
Arrow Video (Blu-ray) (US/UK RA/RB HD), Turner Classic Movies (DVD) (US R1 NTSC)

SO DARK THE NIGHT
B&W, 1946, 70 mins. 16 secs.
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Starring Steven Geray, Micheline Cheirel, Eugene Borden, Ann Codee, Paul Marion, Theodore Gottlieb
Arrow Video (Blu-ray) (US/UK RA/RB HD), Turner Classic Movies (DVD) (US R1 NTSC)


Though My Name Is Julia Rosshe'd been toiling in the lower trenches of Hollywood for My Name Is Julia Rossyears churning out unremarkable programmers with occasional little gems like Invisible Ghost, director Joseph H. Lewis finally had a major breakthrough for Columbia in 1945 with My Name Is Julia Ross, a programmer thriller that surprised executives by becoming a significant hit. A clever thriller straddling the line between noir and Gothic melodrama, this film is based on the novel The Women in Red by Anthony Gilbert (the pen name of writer Lucy Malleson) and was unofficially remade in 1987 as the atmospheric Arthur Penn chiller Dead of Winter with Mary Steenburgen. Regular Columbia player Nina Foch (Cry of the Werewolf) stars in the title role, a young woman in London struggling to make ends meet and deal with an increasingly serious and difficult relationship with her boyfriend, Dennis (The Return of the Vampire's Varno). She winds up accepting a position as a secretary for the seemingly benign old Mrs. Hughes (The Lady Vanishes' Whitty), only to be whisked away, drugged, and trapped in a seaside house where Hughes and her oily son, Ralph (The Return of Count Yorga's Macready), are trying to pass her off as someone else. What's their insidious plan, and who is this mystery woman whose identity they're trying to impose on poor Julia?

Spring-coiled throughout its brief running time at barely over an hour, this is one of the best films by Joseph H. Lewis and the first in his impressive run of skillful crime titles including The Undercover Man, Gun Crazy, and The Big Combo. He and his adept cast keep the snappy story moving like a bullet, leading to a wonderfully intense double climax involving a perilous staircase and an My Name Is Julia Rossunexpected confrontation on the beach. The whole cast is excellent here with Whitty bringing an unsettling cheerfulness to her role and Macready My Name Is Julia Rossprojecting true perversity from the moment we see him sitting in a drawing room casually slicing up women's underwear.

Despite its solid reputation, Sony kept the film out of video circulation even back during the VHS era, so its first official release on DVD in 2011 as part of the five-film TCM Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics III set (included with The Mob, Drive a Crooked Road, Tight Spot, and The Burglar) was a major cause for celebration. The full frame transfer looks excellent and rises a few notches above TV airings, with far less damage and much silkier blacks than most viewers have seen before. Extras include five galleries (behind the scenes photos, lobby cards, publicity stills, scene stills, and movie posters), the theatrical trailer, and a copy of the database info written on the film for TCM's site. Like the other films, this one is presented on its own disc with a healthy bit rate.

In 2019, Arrow Video brought My Name Is Julia Ross to Blu-ray in the U.S. and U.K. along with another Lewis film made immediately afterwards for Columbia, So Dark the Night. This one is also a twisty thriller set in Europe, but that's where the similarities end. Hungarian-born character actor Steven Geray has his one bona fide leading role here as Henri Cassin, an esteemed Parisian detective who decides to take a much-need vacation in the countryside. There he falls hard for Nanette (Cheiril), daughter of the local innkeeper and girlfriend of the moody Leon So Dark the Night(Marion). Soon murder strikes repeatedly in the sleepy town, and as Cassin starts to piece together the clues, he finds an answer more disturbing than he could have imagined. So Dark the Night

A fascinating film that often confounds anyone expecting a more traditional noir, this is the kind of film best discovered by accident late at night when its strange twists can really take hold in the imagination. That also helps its strange segue from a sunny, rather frivolous opening act to a progressively darker tone that climaxes in a stylish, devastating flourish. The studio-bound recreation of France is surprisingly effective here, and the cast is loaded with interesting faces, none more so than the village hunchback played by none other than Theodore Gottlieb, later to be known as caustic pop culture sensation and Gums star Brother Theodore. This one also stayed off the home video market for years but finally made its DVD bow in 2013 as part of the fourth and final release in the series, Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics IV (along with Johnny O'Clock, Walk a Crooked Mile, Between Midnight and Dawn, and Walk East on Beacon). That release also looked excellent for SD with extras including a Martin Scorsese intro (3m36s), a trailer, and the usual separated galleries for publicity stills, behind-the-scenes photos, posters, and lobby cards, plus an Eddie Muller essay covering the film's production in Canoga Park, California (subbing in for France) and the original ending that violated the Production Code (and actually sounds a lot less interesting).

So Dark the NightBoth Arrow releases look gorgeous with extremely high bit rates accorded to the brief features; film grain is more natural and palpable in both cases with deeper blacks as well. They're also fine showcases for the inventive cinematography of Burnett Guffrey, who went on to shoot In a Lonely Place, Homicidal, and Bonnie and Clyde. So Dark the Night differs the most from its SD counterpart, toning down the sometimes harsh and blown-out whites to a more attractive level. The LPCM English mono tracks are also in superb condition, with optional English SDH subtitles provided. My Name Is Julia Ross So Dark the Nightsports a new, compact and fast-paced audio commentary by noir expert Alan K. Rode, who covers the film's surprise success, Foch's career including her influential switch to becoming an acting teacher, and the backgrounds of the other significant players. More info about Lewis can be found in "Identity Crisis: Joseph H. Lewis at Columbia" (21m35s) with Nora Fiore eloquently analyzing the film's visual language, its fortuitous fate at Columbia including a fateful preview screening, and the impact of having two female writers involved in its creation. Also included are the theatrical trailer and, in the first pressing only, a liner notes booklet by critic Adrian Martin, with the reversible packaging sporting a new design by Scott Saslow.

So Dark the Night features a new audio commentary by critics Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme, who also have to tear through a lot of material in a limited amount of time as they cover scholarly writing about the film, the use of reflection motifs, the creation of the French town on limited means. connections to other directors like Billy Wilder, and plenty more. Critic Imogen Sara Smith contributes "A Dark Place: Joseph H. Lewis at Columbia" (20m7s), an excellent and informative appreciation of the film's place in Lewis's career as he was ascending out of poverty row quickies and chose to do this instead of The Jolson Story. The theatrical trailer is also included (in an much-improved HD presentation), and the packaging includes reversible sleeve options (with a new design by Tonci Zonjic) and, in the first pressing only, liner notes by critic David Cairns.

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS: ARROW VIDEO (Blu-ray)

My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS: TCM (DVD)

My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross My Name Is Julia Ross

SO DARK THE NIGHT: ARROW VIDEO (Blu-ray)

So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night

SO DARK THE NIGHT: TCM (DVD)

So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night So Dark the Night

Reviewed on January 27, 2019.