Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

kerrydragon This movie stayed with me for a while in a nagging, sad , hurtful way.The message for me was don't give up your stable good life no matter how boring for temptation, lust and infatuation.The movie could of been edited down to 90 minutes and worked better than going on too long.The story is very far out and more of the sights of San Francisco should of been shown.Also the fashion was lacking with some really ugly hats and I have seen Sheridan much sexier, instead she is stuck with a unimpressive wardrobe.I found Smith rather bland in this role and can see why is wasn't a remembered actor.

calvinnme Dr. Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) is a middle aged man living in San Francisco with two good kids, a dutiful wife, and a good medical practice, respected in the community. And he has one of the dullest most routine lives in the history of the world and doesn't even realize it until one night on his way home from his office he sees a girl (Ann Sheridan as Nora Prentiss) hit by a car and stops to render aid. She has only minor injuries, and he treats her in his office while she flirts shamelessly. He tries to remain aloof, but does kiss her goodnight at her invitation. Something awakens in Richard.And then the two begin seeing each other. Innocently at first - he shows up at her nightclub to watch her sing on the excuse of eating dinner. And it builds from there. Suddenly the doctor realizes just how dull and routine his life is. He doesn't want to slip into the trap of an extramarital affair, and he tries to get his wife to agree to do "fun" things with him, but she just poo poos him and says they are too old for that sort of thing.Well, the initial bloom of the affair turns to unhappiness for both Nora and Richard as Nora wants more - and so does Richard for that matter - but he just can't commit the overt act of breaking up his family. He can't make real and open what has been the truth for months. So Nora decides to make a clean break. She is moving to New York to sing in a club for an old friend (Robert Alda as Phil Denardo).Richard won't lose Nora, but he can't bring himself to ask for a divorce either. As the clock is ticking on Nora's train out of town, in walks a patient with a fatal heart condition complaining of horrible chest pains. Richard tries to save him, but the patient dies in his office. Richard and the patient were alone. The patient has already said he lives at the YMCA and has no friends or family. And the dead man is the same weight, age, and height as the doctor.So a cowardly solution comes to Richard's mind. He puts the dead man's body in his own car, dowses it with gasoline, sets it ablaze, and pushes it from the road off a cliff to the rocks below. The body is burned beyond recognition with all of Richard's identifying belongings on him. And then he catches up with Nora and lies to her about how he has asked for a divorce and is leaving town with her.He reads the San Francisco papers in New York and reads of his funeral. But he also reads of an investigation caused by his partner in the practice noticing some funny things that might mean Richard was being blackmailed and was perhaps murdered. So Richard's plans - of which Nora knows nothing - are possibly foiled. I'll let you see how this all works out, but I'll just say the irony is astounding, and ask you - at the end of the film, what would you do if you were Nora?Kent Smith never really caught on in motion pictures, but here he is great as a man who starts out as dead on the inside but respected, then alive but torn, and then trapped in a jail of his own making as his sanity slowly unwinds. Nora is a tragic figure, even though she started the flirtation, probably just making fun of a guy she at first found unbelievably stiff given the world of nightclubs in which she lived. Robert Alda is as patient as a saint as the guy who loves Nora, knows all about the home she broke up but not about how Richard actually broke it, and doesn't judge her.If you want to watch a noir in which everybody's life becomes a train wreck but you really can't find one evil character, just one cowardly one, this is your film. It's also one of the first post war films to incorporate the theme of being all alone in a big city despite the sea of people.

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.

BaronBl00d Awfully frank thriller about a chance meeting between a doctor working late one night and a singer who gets a bad scrape in a minor accident hooking up into a extra-marital(for the doctor) relationship that heads South in a hurry. Kent Smith, the male lead from Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, plays Dr. Talbot rather nicely I thought. He portrays a man who has worked hard his whole life and sacrificed his "life" for his job and family. Ann Sheridan plays the genuinely nice singer who appeals to the doctor not only because of her beauty but her ability to see him for who and what he is. She does a phenomenal job in what really is a complex role. The rest of the cast is pretty decent. Bruce Bennett may come off miscast as a doctor, but Robert Alda as a night club owner and Rosemary DeCamp as Talbot's wife both excel. While not really a mystery - or a very ingenious one as we know what is going on early on, this picture really depicts what at once seems quite harmless and its transformation into something very harmful. Director Vincent Sherman is more than adequate behind the camera. Some might say this really isn't film noir - I can see some of their points - but this is noir all the way for me: the suggestive black and white cinematography, the voice-over narrator, the man being changed by the "dame," and the ending that is bittersweet. The biggest problem with Nora Prentiss is the title. Ann Sheridan was the box office grab - and this grabbed a lot of tickets - but she is not the star of the movie nor is her character the central character. Kent Smith is the star and a more appropriate title should have been selected. Hmmm...maybe, "The Cheating Surgeon" or "The Doomed Affair." Definitely needs more thought!