Questioning Your Identity

On this date in 1945, My Name is Julia Ross premiered in New York City. The sixty-four-minute suspense drama from Columbia Pictures was directed by Joseph H. Lewis and starred Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, and George Macready. Set in London, Ross takes a position with an employment agency but soon discovers someone(s) are attempting to convince her to question her own identity. Based upon the 1941 novel, The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert, the psychological twists and fast-paced, tense action has been played out in many films before and since, but it is worth watching for the convincing cast.

World War II Unofficially Continues

On this date in 1946, Step by Step had its full US premiere. It is a rare good guy role for Lawrence Tierney as a Marine veteran. His love interest and co-star, Anne Jeffries, works as a secretary for a senator on a case of national security. The suspenseful drama deepens when three German spies infiltrate the senator's house, knocking him unconscious, bind and gag Jeffries, leaving behind a murdered associate. Jeffries is rescued by Tierney who both met earlier during more pleasant circumstances. However, they both become the chief suspects in the senator's beating and the associate's murder. While attempting to elude authorities and the spies, they become convinced the Germans were unable to find a top-secret document that implicates them and others as spies. Rest assured, they locate the documents in the nick of time.

House of Horrors (1946)

 

On this date in 1946, House of Horrors had its US premiere. The most notable stars were Robert Lowry and Virginia Grey who were [over] shadowed by Rondo Hatton as "The Creeper." A struggling sculptor saves Hatton from drowning, taking the disfigured man into his care. The artist makes him the subject of his next sculpture but critics denigrate his work so he plans to eliminate any differing opinions by having the Creeper attempt to kill them all. The artist's unfaithful behavior does not sit well with Hatton for his final comeuppance. The lightning coming from The Creeper's eyes is offered only for the gullible.

Though normal-appearing when he was young, Hatton's unusual facial features developed during the early 1920s, the result of acromegaly, a syndrome caused by a disorder of the pituitary gland. Though he acted occasionally in the 1930s, his most unique place period was in the 1940's horror films under shadowy lighting. The film's release was about a month after Hatton's death by a heart attack due to his condition. It was his next to the last film.