evening1 This story started out very promisingly, deftly depicting the psychopathic side of a clean-cut family man who falls for a showgirl.It went seriously downhill when the straight-laced doctor impulsively acts on a cockamamie scheme to fake his own death and run away with his hottie.The movie then goes from dumb to dumber when the physician, who has become an unshaven alcoholic, allows himself to be convicted of his own murder without a fight -- reasoning that being put away for life will be easier for everyone involved. Sorry, but the self-sacrificing martyr role doesn't jibe with the narcissist eager to throw everything away for sex.But the movie was certainly compelling as long as courtly Dr. Talbot was pursuing the sultry Nora. How cool it was when he told her he was working on a paper about the heart. "A paper?" she shot back. "I could write a book about that." Dunno about anyone else but I kept mistrusting this lady, though she proved far more ethical than the doctor. It was more a movie about him than her, so the movie's title should have reflected that. But I suppose Ann Sheridan's bigger name in movies accounts for her billing.

dgabbard I saw this as part of the Noir Festival held annually by the American Cinematheque. Somebody when it was over quipped "Now I know why I never heard of it before--it sure won't make me forget Mildred Pierce". The downfall of Dr. Talbot drags on and on in excessive detail until the film almost seems a parody. Nora Prentiss is presented as a victim of circumstance, even though she is the one who drives Talbot to leave his family, abandon his career and eventually basically fall to pieces. So you don't even have the guilty pleasure of her being a fallen woman or a scheming temptress. Great location shooting, excellent art direction and some adequate acting but not very memorable.

Scoval71 I caught this movie on TV the other night and was mesmerized. A man is so taken with a girl that he fakes his own death, gives up a lucrative career and forsakes his children. Didn't he ever think of divorce? Ann Sheridan gives a memorable performance and ends up happy with yet another man that always loved her. She seems never to be without a suitor. A pitiful end for the good doctor, yet one cannot help thinking he was kind of stupid to do what he did. Then again, being in an unhappy marriage makes anyone act irrationally at times. I enjoyed this period piece. Kent Smith as the doctor is all right, not the best actor, but the picture is called Nora Prentiss. I enjoyed it. See it for yourself next time it is on television. I wouldn't mind watching it again.

bkoganbing I'm surprised that no one has picked up on the fact that Nora Prentiss is merely an updated version of Theodore Dreiser's classic Sister Carrie. Since Dreiser had died a couple of years before, he didn't pick up on it or Warner Brothers would have had a libel suit on its hands.Sister Carrie was set in the turn of the last century and dealt with Victorian mores. Even in post World War II America, it seems that not much has changed. Respectable and proper Kent Smith is a forty something doctor, married with two children, in a respectable middle class rut. He's about to break loose for some big life crisis. The catalyst for that is Ann Sheridan in the title role. Sheridan is a sultry night club singer who gets hit by a cab and is treated in Kent Smith's nearby office. Had the film been made at Columbia, Rita Hayworth would have been ideal for the lead. But Ann Sheridan does do a good job and even does her own singing. Hayworth would have made the film a classic.The film does descend into melodrama though moving far afield from the social commentary that Theodore Dreiser had in mind. But Kent Smith's character's degradation is as complete as Dreiser's George Hurstwood.I would recommend seeing this film and the film that Sir Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones did, Carrie, and comparing the two versions.