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.

TCM pulled this out as a 6PM feature. When I read the wild plot line I had to turn it on. I am glad I did. I remembered Ann Sheridan from childhood and in this movie she gives a fine performance. Kent Smith is excellent in his role of the Married Doctor who wants to leave his wife and family for the other woman but can't quite pull it off. When he finally gets up the nerve to write her and ask for a divorce, he is presented with an escape clause in a patient with a bad heart showing up and dying in his office. The patient just happens to be the same age, size, build as the doctor.Dr Talbot (no relation to the Wolf Man as Lon Chaney Jr. had the same last name) then takes a can of flammable liquid, put it and the dead body in his car, drive it to the nearest cliff, start it on fire and then plant evidence that the burned body is his. All of this to run off with Sheridan, though I can't blame him. I think a lot of men would have made major sacrifices to run off with her then.What then happens is Dr Talbot's best laid plans all get messed up. Robert Alda is very effective as Sheridan's best friend who has something in common with Talbot, he loves her too. I won't spoil the ending here except to say that this film noir period is very well served in this one by the cast and the way script is written. The atmosphere of movie is very well done. The reason it is not a perfect film is that the cops in this overlook a very obvious clue that they have the wrong man. What is interesting is they find the clue and do not put 2 & 2 together to make 4. Instead they ignore the obvious but in order for the script too work they have too.This type of script could have been played weepy and soapy. This film rises above that do to some terrific acting by the cast. For Noir era fans, this movie is definitely worth at least a look.

This B movie melodrama of love and the tragedy of mistaken identity is a quagmire of improbable twists and turns. Kent Smith, an actor with no screen charisma, plays a doctor and solid family man who falls for nightclub singer Ann Sheridan. There is no heat in their coupling; he courts his new love like a dispassionate doctor making a routine house call on a patient. After some initial snappish, flirtatious interchange with the doctor, Sheridan presents her character as refined and lady-like, not a nightclub flame that sets men afire with self-destructive desire. And self-destruction is what lies in wait for the doctor. Not an example of the noir genre, this is a tepid movie, grim and dour.

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.