Noir City 2026: Nora Prentiss
February 14, 2026
A neglected classic! Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) is the squarest doctor you’ll ever meet, but he’s so taken by San Francisco nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan) that he decides to throw his life away in the hopes of winning her over.
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Saturday, February 14, 2026
San Francisco physician Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) falls hard for nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan), but she cuts off their budding romance when she learns the smitten sawbones is married. Not to be deterred, the doc devises an outlandishly noirish scheme to reunite with Nora under a new identity. Need we say that tragic consequences ensue? This pitch-black melodrama was tailored by Warner Bros. for oft-suspended star Sheridan, the studio’s “Oomph Girl,” who had turned down the lead role in 1945’s Mildred Pierce allowing Joan Crawford to snag an Oscar and a career comeback. Sold as a romantic “woman’s picture,” the film is really focused on the doctor’s terminal case of amour fou, which spirals into one of the darkest and most daring plot twists in the genre. Director Vincent Sherman elicits career-best performances from both Smith and Sheridan, while the quintessentially noir tone is supplied by legendary DP James Wong Howe. A neglected classic!
- Director: Vincent Sherman
- Principal Cast: Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett, Robert Alda
- Country: USA
- Year: 1946
- Running Time: 111 min.
- Producer: William Jacobs
- Screenplay: N. Richard Nash, Paul Webster, Jack Sobell
- Cinematographers: James Wong Howe
- Editors: Owen Marks
- Music: Franz Waxman
- Format: DCP
- US Distributor: Park Circus