Nora Prentiss (1947)

Nora Prentiss
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Paul Webster, Jack Sobell and N. Richard Nash
1947/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD

Dr. Richard Talbot aka Robert Thompson: I’m writing a paper on ailments of the heart.Nora Prentiss: A paper? I could write a book!

A melodrama of adulterous love turns pitch black by the end.

Heart specialist Dr. Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) lives on a tight schedule dictated by his wife of twenty years, who strictly disciplines their two children as well.  One day, his orderly existence is knocked on its ear when he gives first aid to sassy nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan) when she is slightly injured by a car.  Opposites attract and, when Talbot’s wife goes away with the children one weekend, they begin a love affair against Nora’s better judgement.

Before long, she tires of hiding and lying and decides to go to New York for a fresh start. Sadly, Talbot can neither bear to ask his wife for a divorce nor part with Nora.  His guilt and despair are tearing him apart and he can no longer hold a scalpel steady.  When a heart patient suddenly dies of a heart attack late at night in his office, Talbot sees a way out involving a switch in identities.  By now the film has turned noir, though, and Fate has other ideas.

Surprisingly for film noir, Nora is actually the sane and decent party to the relationship.  It is the man, struggling to escape the restrictions of his domestic obligations, that will not let go of her.  I have noticed that smothering wives and girlfriends make frequent appearances in film noir and that its heros are inevitably punished for defying them. Here, also, the hero is suffering from his inability to be seen as in the wrong.  How else could it seem preferable to let his wife and children mourn him than to ask for the divorce?

Ann Sheridan makes a very appealing heroine.  Smith (Cat People) is fine though a more dynamic actor might have been preferable.  The first part of the story drags a bit but after Richard and Nora arrive in New York it picks up speed and builds to a devastating climax.

Trailer – cinematography by James Wong Howe