The story is completelly unbelievable to start,a lack o authenticity crumble the plot a low degree,nevertheless still intereresting as entertaiment it's works a lot neither Nina Foch quite often has done a good acting,another point to discuss is about the lenght of the movie,it's too short to tell a story fullness,but it was an acceptable works which should be more development prior to be shooting!!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How Many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

This picture starts off pretty well but quickly tails off into the Predictable Potboiler category. Answering an add from a phony employment agency, Nina Foch (Julia Ross) is kidnapped by a family anxious to find an alibi for unstable George Macready, who has evidently killed his wife. So, she becomes the unwilling stand-in.A pretty good start, but things go quickly downhill along with viewer interest. The main complaint is that Julia Ross is an extremely passive and helpless kidnap victim, thereby setting the Women's Lib movement back more than half a century. Showing very little gumption or pugnacity, she is easily held back, caught, restrained and forbidden throughout the film and each morning she is shown awaking in her bed, presumably after a good nights sleep. She does a great deal of grousing and complaining but does not show much forethought to or urgency towards escaping - wouldn't that be your main thought in a similar circumstance? Well, as I say the whole movie was a turn off, especially the hilariously contrived ending. Miss Foch did her best with out much to work with, and the support cast, Dame May Witty in particular, was very competent. It is mercifully short at 65", but it's not time well spent.

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.

Having watched this film strictly on the strength of reviewers' ratings I was most pleasantly surprised. Although clearly low-budget, it bears the signs of clever ingenuity. For example, when Julia wakes in the strange house and looks out the window I found myself thinking that her sense of isolation would be enhanced with an exterior shot focused on her face and then moving backwards to include the house and its isolated location. And lo and behold! the next scene was exactly that last shot of the house standing lonely on the cliff at the water's edge. There are other examples of how a clever director can elevate his film to the level of a very enjoyable thriller. Savvy viewers will surely spot them but should rest assured they will not be disappointed.As to the performances, George Macready is his usual creepy self, barely maintaining his composure while suggesting a capacity for unadulterated violence. Nina Foch was surprisingly good as the no-nonsense working girl who's not about to submit without a fight. But Dame May Witty, oh boy, she even had me doubting my own eyes and believing she could get away with her evil schemes.This a real diamond in the rough and not to be missed.