My Name Is Julia Ross

Intensely atmospheric, with a Hitchcock feel to it, this is a great example of how to make an excellent “B” film. Nina Foch plays an American living alone in England who accepts a job as a live-in secretary to an elderly woman and her son. The pair seem cordial and pleasant at first but the young woman slowly realizes that she is being held prisoner in the house as part of a nefarious scheme that will result in her death.

Foch, who rarely has been appreciated for her acting talents, is excellent, as are Dame May Whitty as the mentally unbalanced, evil mother and George Macready as the equally disturbed son. The movie was remade with a different setting in 1987’s “Dead of Winter” starring Mary Steenburgen.