Julie (1956)

Julie - 1956

Our next film on the blog is 1956's thriller "Julie", starring Doris Day and Louis Jourdan.  A wife discovers that her husband is a killer who will do anything to stop her from leaving him.

The film's supporting cast includes Barry Sullivan, Frank Lovejoy, Jack Kelly, Barney Phillips, Ed Hinton, Hank Patterson, and Aline Towne.

The film opens with Julie driving herself and her husband Lyle home from an evening out.  She's furious with him for embarrassing her in front of her first husband's cousin.  Julie's first husband killed himself and afterwards she married Lyle.

While she is expressing her anger at his behavior at the party, Lyle pushes his foot on top of hers and the car accelerates to a dangerous level as it winds along twisty coastal roads.  Julie pleads for him to stop, but he doesn't listen.  Just when it seems that they are going to go over a cliff, Lyle takes control of the car and brings it to a stop.  Julie runs off.  Lyle catches up with her and apologizes, saying he just couldn't stop and that he was jealous of her first husband's cousin Cliff when they were talking.

Julie feels sorry for Lyle and stays with him.  Later, she confides in him that Cliff was telling her that her first husband's suicide doesn't make sense.  Lyle tells her somewhat forcefully to drop the matter.

While playing golf one day, Cliff tells Julie that her first husband's suicide could've been staged.  He asks if anyone was at the house that day.  She tells him that Lyle was at the house.  Cliff tells her that he could be insane and a murderer.  She doesn't want to believe him, but she can't help feeling that there could be some truth to what he says.

Later, while she is listening to Lyle feverishly play the piano, Julie begins to feel afraid.  "I'd listen by the hour to Lyle practice.  He played so beautifully.  But today there was something strangely disturbing about his music.  A sort of savage fury that...that was almost frightening," she says.

Lyle later confesses to her that he killed her husband so that he could marry Julie himself.  He also tells her, "don't ever try to leave me."

When Lyle goes out, Julie runs with Cliff to the police, who advise her to leave town.  Lyle follows them everywhere, but they always seem to be just out of his grasp.

Cliff takes Julie to San Francisco, where he gets her a room in a crowded hotel under an assumed name.

Somehow, Lyle finds out where Julie is staying.  He telephones her room and plays a recording of his music.  Julie is instantly frightened.  Then, Lyle tells her that she's going to die.  "Just wait for it to happen.  You'll never know when that's going to be, will you, Julie?"

Julie and Cliff rush to the police station.  However, in the absence of proof that he killed her husband, there is nothing that the police can do to Lyle.  "He admitted killing my husband.  He admits that he wants to kill me, and nobody can help me do anything.  It's fantastic," she says as she cries.

The police recommend that she change her identity to get away from her husband.  The detective in charge also assigns two officers to protect her until the next day.  At her hotel room that night, Lyle plays the music recording loudly from the parking lot, sending Julie into a panic.

Eventually, Julie returns to the job she had before she was married: airline stewardess.  She stays with a friend, and seems to be getting along happily.

Lyle corners Cliff one night.  After shooting him (but not killing him), Lyle discovers Julie's location and makes plans to find her.

That same night, Julie is called in to work a shift on a plane leaving San Francisco within a short time.  She hurriedly gets ready and goes to the airport.  Though, she feels someone is following her.

Once the airplane has taken off, Julie is called to the cockpit, where the police inform her that Cliff has been shot (but will live) and that Lyle could be on the plane.

Julie walks back among the passengers and sees the back of his head, confirming her worst fears.

As makes her way back to the cockpit, Lyle grabs her and shuts the cockpit door.  He pulls a gun on the captain.  The captain also has a gun, and the two take shots at each other.  The captain is fatally injured and Lyle is wounded.  Just before he dies from the gunshot, Lyle tells Julie that she will be all alone in the cockpit with no one to fly the plane.  Then, he shoots the first mate.  Lyle then collapses onto the floor dead.

The first mate is not mortally wounded, but is unable to fly the plane.  A doctor on board comes up to help with his injuries.  The first mate tells Julie that she will have to fly the plane with assistance from ground control.

She nervously gets into the captain's chair and guides the plane back to San Francisco.  The first mate is able to help her at first, but soon passes out from his injuries.

Julie endures a tense twenty-five minute plane ride back to San Francisco.  The ground crew nervously waits as they give her instructions.  She lands the plane, but it bounces back up.  After some more instruction, she is able to land it again.

She pushes hard on the breaks so that the plane will come to a complete stop.

When it does stop, Julie breathes a sigh of relief that her terrible ordeal is finally over.

Cast rundown:

   Doris Day................................Julie Benton

   Louis Jourdan..........................Lyle Benton

   Barry Sullivan..........................Cliff Henderson

   Frank Lovejoy..........................Lt. Pringle

   Jack Kelly................................Jack

   Barney Phillips.........................Doctor

   Ed Hinton................................Captain

   Hank Patterson........................Ellis

   Aline Towne.............................Denise Martin

And that's all for Julie.  Filming locations for this film included the region surrounding Monterey, California.  Doris Day fell in love with the area during production.  When she retired from acting, she moved to the region in the 1970s and remained in residence there until her death in 2019.  This film is one of the few films where Doris Day is shown smoking cigarettes.  Apparently, Doris's co-star Louis Jourdan caused her husband Martin Melcher to become extremely jealous, mirroring her on screen character and her husband.

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