42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Old Fashion Meodrama, January 31, 2000
This review is from: Julie [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Great change of pace for Doris Day who plays airline stewardess Julie Benton. After marrying Louis Jourdan, an overly jealous man, she discovers that he killed her first husband in order to have her. She is unable to get help from the police because it is her word against his and because the law at that time stated that a wife could not testify against her husband.The movie is tense and keeps you on the edge of your seat as Julie tries to escape her pyscopathic husband. The climax is dynamite although it does stretch your imagination a little bit. Alright, a big bit but remember this movie was made at a time when people went to the movies to be entertained by melodramatics and not be buried in reality. This is one of the better melodramas with Miss Day giving a fine performance. The title song.JULIE, is beautiful and stayed on top of the Hit Parade for many weeks. Alhough this film is in black and white, the Carmel scenery is gorgeous.
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42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DAY'S "JULIE" A NIFTY THRILLER!, January 9, 2002
This review is from: Julie [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Director Andrew Stone had an ability to make a lot of programmers appear to be better than they actually were. He was economic but managed to make his films look like expensive productions. Most of them turned out to be surprisingly entertaining with the exception of his attempt to resurrect the operetta in the early 70's. "Song of Norway", based on the lovely Broadway success, and "The Great Waltz", dubbed "The Great Schmaltz" by critics, effectively ended his career.
"Julie" his late 1956 release pleased its intended market thanks to a sincere performance from star Doris Day, and a taut script that rarely falters in its crackling pace. Sure there are holes in the plot and any fan of this kind of story (the wife in peril) will know the ending long before it happens. Nevertheless, its what was known as a "popcorn movie" and the picture nabbed two Oscar Nominations (for screenplay and for song). It lost the song nod to another Day tune, "Whatever Will Be, Will Be", from her hugely popular Hitchcock release of 1956 co-starring Jimmy Stewart, "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
Doris Day plays Julie, a newly remarried widow who works as an airline attendant. She is married to Lyle, a gifted pianist, and they live in a beautiful coastal town in California.
Lyle is obsessively jealous of anyone taking a look at his wife, and his jealousy manifests itself in a series of unsettling incidents that makes Julie begin to question their relationship as well as the circumstances surrounding the death of her late husband.
The film's conclusion in which Doris successfully pilots a passenger plane has gone down in film lore. It should be pointed out that Day's acting and piloting skills here are superior to those evidenced by Karen Black in 1973's "Airport 1974" in which she too pulls the same trick.
It's all very improbable but dished out with such conviction by the cast that one can overlook the improbability.
As stated, Doris Day delivers a fine performance in the leading role. She is sympathetic but never acts like a victim. She has a great chemistry with Louis Jourdan who plays her husband Lyle believably. Interestingly Jourdan lived across the street from Day in Beverly Hills for some years. Despite his dashing portrayal as leading man in the classic film, "Gigi", Jourdan has always made a much more interesting villian including a turn in a 1983 James Bond film.
Barry Sullivan and Frank Lovejoy, among the supporting players, play stereotypical roles with flair and the stunning scenes shot in Carmel, California translate well even in black and white.
Doris Day loved Carmel so much while making this film that 25 years later she moved her primary residence to this quaint, charming, and dramatic location.
While "Julie" is not nearly as good as Doris Day's other two thrillers ("Man Who Knew..." and 1960's, "Midnight Lace"), it will satisfy most fans of the genre and Miss Day.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When Louis Jourdan turns creepy, watch out!, March 25, 2003
This review is from: Julie [VHS] (VHS Tape)
What struck me most about "Julie" was that the situation it depicts, while it may have seemed outlandish at the time in the 1950s/60s, is actually more true than not. Modern US social history has given us plenty of examples of women married to violent men, men who would rather kill them than let them leave.
Doris Day turns in a pretty good performance as Julie, a remarried widow who has had it with her new husband's jealous fits. It's when she tells him that maybe she wants out of the marriage that he betrays deeper problems, jamming her foot down on the accelerator in a terrifying car ride, that she can no longer make any excuses for him. Then, old family friend Barry Sullivan tells her there was no reason for her first husband to kill himself, and then she and he begin to wonder what Jourdan could possibly have to do with that. What do YOU think, dear reader? Yup, you guessed it, but this gets disclosed about 15 minutes in anyway, so that's no big surprise.
As I wrote above, what is the surprise is how realistic the storyline is in depicting how such a woman would be stalked and terrorized. The police tell her there's nothing much to be done on their end, and sadly, that hasn't changed enough 40 years later, as many domestic homicides would attest.
I thought "Julie" was exceptionally well made for a very obscure film. Previously, I had thought Doris' only movie like this was "Midnight Lace", but this predates that by a few years. The only discordant note is the theme song, sung by Miss Day over the titles, which show us Doris hurrying to her car to escape Jourdan. Very insensitive musical scoring at that point.
Otherwise, I recommend "Julie" as a suspense movie that really works. It's a pity that it's not so well known.
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