Dr. Talbot (Kent Smith) is married and has a successful practice. However, his wife neglects him terribly and seems much more concerned about her children, dinner parties and the like. So, when the Doc has an emergency patient, Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan), he finds himself drawn to her as she's everything the wife isn't. Not surprisingly (since the film telegraphed this), he soon begins an affair with her and eventually his wife does notice that something is amiss. But by now it seems too late...he wants out of the marriage but is basically a coward and is afraid to ask. One night, a seeming golden opportunity arises when a patient walks into his office late one night...and then promptly dies. The dead man is roughly the Doc's age and size...and Doc Talbot decides to convince everyone he's died and then he can run off with Nora. After all, the dead man had no family and Talbot is desperately unhappy. But this is the 1940s...and folks in Hollywood films never seem to get away with anything. So what's next for this really screwed up man and his lovely sweetie-pie?Kent Smith is very good as the doctor...so good it seems a shame that the movie is named after Sheridan's character. She is much less interesting and the film, despite the title, is clearly Smith's. He goes from a really nice, pitiful guy to a nasty and almost demented character....and this was very interesting and made it his film. I especially like how it all ends.....a truly memorable and unforgettable film! Sure, it's not exactly the most believable plot...but it is entertaining.

How can you not love a film like this? It's a splendid combination of melodrama, horror and gangster picture all rolled up into one. Not many films are made that way. And with such great performances, it's a real treat.Warners' presentation of Ann Sheridan in a more serious role takes her away from her usual assignments as a saucy, wisecracking dame. This particular story has Sheridan as a nightclub singer who falls for a married doctor and naturally should not have him. But in utter and complete defiance of the production code, she does get him, and it leads to his utter and complete ruination. The film is bolstered by costars Kent Smith as the doctor, Rosemary de Camp as the doctor's wife, and Robert Alda as a gangster who wants Miss Sheridan all to himself. And frankly, who wouldn't..?

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.

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!