Nora Prentiss

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Nora Prentiss

Directed by	Vincent Sherman
Produced by	William Jacobs Jack L. Warner executive producer
Written by	Paul Webster (story) Jack Sobell (story) N. Richard Nash
Starring	Ann Sheridan Kent Smith Bruce Bennett Robert Alda Rosemary DeCamp Wanda Hendrix
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	February 21, 1947
Running time	111 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Nora Prentiss is a 1947 black-and-white drama film shot in the film noir style. The film, considered by some to be a "woman's noir", was directed by Vincent Sherman, who bought the story for $2500. Sherman also directed leading lady Ann Sheridan in another 1947 film noir, The Unfaithful. The cinematography is by famed cameraman James Wong Howe. Music composed by Franz Waxman.

1 Plot
2 Critical reaction
3 Cast
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Married California doctor Dr. Richard Talbot, having an affair with a night club singer, fakes his own death by substituting a dead man's body for his own. The doctor gives up all and moves to New York to be with the woman he loves, Nora Prentiss. Prentiss' career as a singer takes off meanwhile, Talbot becomes more and more paranoid when he realizes his death is under investigation. Talbot, after a number of twists and turns, gets into a car accident and his face becomes permanently disfigured. He gets a new face due to plastic surgery. The police, not realizing that the man is Talbot, arrests him for the murder of his former self. Guilty about the suffering he caused his family, Talbot convinces Prentiss to keep his secret while on death row and allow him to be executed for his own murder.

[edit] Critical reaction

Critics call the movie one of the best "woman's noir." Writer Alain Silver notes:

"Unlike such other Ann Sheridan or Joan Crawford motion pictures as The Unfaithful, Flamingo Road, and The Damned Don't Cry, Nora Prentiss does not lapse into a romantic melodrama that might detract from the maudit sensibility, the quintessential element of film noir."