Nora Prentiss

Last updated

Nora Prentiss
Norapre.JPG
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Screenplay by N. Richard Nash
Story byPaul Webster
Jack Sobell
Produced byWilliam Jacobs
Starring Ann Sheridan
Kent Smith
Bruce Bennett
Robert Alda
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Edited by Owen Marks
Music by Franz Waxman
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • February 21, 1947 (1947-02-21)(New York City)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,487,000 [1]
Box office$2.4 million (US rentals) [2] or $3,324,000 [1]

Nora Prentiss is a 1947 American film noir directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett, and Robert Alda. [3] It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The cinematography is by James Wong Howe and the music was composed by Franz Waxman. The film's sets were designed by the art director Anton Grot.

Contents

Plot

Dr. Richard Talbot, unhappy with the dull routine of his married life in San Francisco, meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss by chance after he sees her get struck by a truck near his office. The two gradually begin to have an affair, causing disruption in Richard's home and professional lives. He tries to cool things down with Nora after he forgets his daughter's birthday, but, when Nora says she wants to break things off entirely and he is so shaken that he almost kills a patient during surgery, he realizes he is not willing to lose her. Not knowing how to ask his wife for a divorce, he seizes an opportunity to fake his death when a patient who looks somewhat like him and who he knows does not have any family or friends dies in his office. He puts his wedding ring on the corpse, puts the body in his car, and sets the car on fire and pushes it off a cliff before moving with Nora to New York with a large sum of money he has withdrawn from the bank. Shortly after arriving, Richard learns that the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

Richard does not tell Nora what he has done until it becomes clear that she is not buying his fake explanations for why he is living under an alias and never wants to leave their hotel. Even though the truth means they will not be able to get married and that Richard will not be able to practice medicine any more, Nora says she will stick by him and starts singing at the new club her boss from San Francisco has opened in New York. Left alone while she rehearses, Richard begins to drink heavily and becomes increasingly jealous. While fleeing the scene after a fight with Nora's boss, he crashes his car and his face is badly cut and burned. The police, not realizing who the injured man is, arrest Richard as a suspect in the murder of Dr. Talbot when his fingerprints are found to be a match with some found at the crime scene.

Back in San Francisco, Richard refuses to reveal his identity or speak in his defense, since he feels that doing so will only serve to cause his family more suffering because he has already ruined any chance he may have had at a tolerable future. He convinces Nora to help him keep his secret so that he can be convicted and executed for his own murder.

Cast

Reception

Box office

According to records at Warner Bros., the film earned $2,229,000 in the U.S. and $1,095,000 in other markets. [1]

Critical response

When the film was released, the staff at Variety gave the film an unfavorable review:

Nora Prentiss is an overlong melodrama, a story of romance between a married man and a girl. But it's never quite believable. Ann Sheridan makes much of her role but the production has unsympathetic slant for leads and a lack of smoothness...Sheridan is the singer, and has two tunes to warble. As the doctor, Kent Smith is okay dramatically in a part that doesn't hold much water. Bruce Bennett, co-starred, has little to do as a medico friend of Smith. [4]

The New York Times recapped its plot and continued, "the playing of the story is every bit as ridiculous as its sounds. Miss Sheridan is practically a cipher and Kent Smith, who plays the poor doc, gives a walking representation of a love-smitten telephone pole. Nobody else really figures. This is major picture-making at its worst." [5]

Noir analysis

Critics call the movie one of the best "woman's noir." Film historian Bob Porfirio 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." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Sheridan</span> American actress and singer (1915–1967)

Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.

<i>Key Largo</i> (film) 1948 film noir crime drama

Key Largo is a 1948 American film noir crime drama directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall. The supporting cast features Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor. The film was adapted by Richard Brooks and Huston from Maxwell Anderson's 1939 play of the same name. Key Largo was the fourth and final film pairing of actors Bogart and Bacall, after To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Dark Passage (1947). Claire Trevor won the 1948 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of alcoholic former nightclub singer Gaye Dawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Bennett</span> American actor (1906–2007)

Bruce Bennett was an American film and television actor who was a college athlete in football and in intercollegiate and international track-and-field competitions. In 1928, he won the silver medal for the shot put at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Bennett's acting career in film and television spanned more than 40 years.

<i>Brainstorm</i> (1965 film) 1965 film by William Conrad

Brainstorm is a 1965 neo-noir thriller film starring Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis. It was produced and directed by William Conrad, who was better known as an actor in such television series as Cannon and Jake and the Fatman, and was one of three suspense thrillers directed by Conrad for Warner Bros. in 1965, which also included Two on a Guillotine and My Blood Runs Cold.

<i>The Unfaithful</i> (1947 film) 1947 film noir directed by Vincent Sherman

The Unfaithful is a 1947 American murder mystery film noir directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres and Zachary Scott. It was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers. Regarded by some as a film noir, the picture is based on the W. Somerset Maugham-penned 1927 play and William Wyler-directed 1940 film The Letter, which was reworked and turned into an original screenplay by writers David Goodis and James Gunn who shifted the setting from Malaya to the United States.

<i>Woman on the Run</i> 1950 film by Norman Foster

Woman on the Run is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Norman Foster and starring Ann Sheridan and Dennis O'Keefe. The film was based on the April 1948 short story "Man on the Run" by Sylvia Tate.

<i>Conflict</i> (1945 film) 1945 film with Humphrey Bogart directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Conflict is a 1945 American black-and-white suspense film noir made by Warner Brothers. It was directed by Curtis Bernhardt, produced by William Jacobs from a screenplay by Arthur T. Horman and Dwight Taylor, based on the story The Pentacle by Alfred Neumann and Robert Siodmak. It starred Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, and Sydney Greenstreet. The film is the only pairing of Bogart and Greenstreet of the five in which they acted together where Bogart rather than Greenstreet is the villain or corrupt character. There is also a cameo appearance of the Maltese Falcon statue.

<i>High Wall</i> 1947 film by Curtis Bernhardt

High Wall is a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter and Herbert Marshall. It was directed by Curtis Bernhardt from a screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Lester Cole, based on a play by Alan R. Clark and Bradbury Foote.

<i>Mildred Pierce</i> (film) 1945 American melodrama/film noir film by Michael Curtiz

Mildred Pierce is a 1945 American melodrama film noir directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, and Zachary Scott, also featuring Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, and Bruce Bennett. Based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, this was Crawford's first starring role for Warner Bros. after leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. In 1996, Mildred Pierce was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

<i>The Man I Love</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Raoul Walsh

The Man I Love is a 1947 American film noir melodrama directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King and Bruce Bennett. Produced and distributed by Warner Brothers, the film is based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff. The title is taken from the George and Ira Gershwin song "The Man I Love", which is prominently featured.

Danger Signal is a 1945 American film noir starring Faye Emerson and Zachary Scott. The screenplay was adapted from the 1939 novel of the same name by Phyllis Bottome.

<i>Mandalay</i> (film) 1934 film by Michael Curtiz

Mandalay is a 1934 American pre Code drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and written by Austin Parker and Charles Kenyon based on a story by Paul Hervey Fox. The film stars Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland and Lyle Talbot, and features Ruth Donnelly and Reginald Owen.

<i>Silver River</i> (film) 1948 film by Raoul Walsh

Silver River is a 1948 American western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan and Thomas Mitchell. The film is based on a Stephen Longstreet story that was turned into a novel. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros.

<i>Shine On, Harvest Moon</i> (1944 film) 1944 film by David Butler

Shine On, Harvest Moon is a 1944 musical–biographical film about the vaudeville team of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, who wrote the popular song "Shine On, Harvest Moon." The film was directed by David Butler and stars Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan Sheridan's singing voice was dubbed by Lynn Martin.

<i>Cheyenne</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Raoul Walsh

Cheyenne is a 1947 American western mystery film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett. It was produced and released by Hollywood major Warner Bros.

<i>The Florentine Dagger</i> 1935 film by Robert Florey

The Florentine Dagger is a 1935 American film noir mystery film directed by Robert Florey.

<i>Shakedown</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Joseph Pevney

Shakedown is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, Peggy Dow, Lawrence Tierney, Bruce Bennett and Anne Vernon.

<i>Naughty but Nice</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Ray Enright

Naughty but Nice is a 1939 Warner Bros. musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright and starring Dick Powell, Ann Sheridan, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan and Helen Broderick. The original story and screenplay were written by Richard Macaulay and Jerry Wald, and the film includes songs with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, as well as music adapted from Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart, Schumann and Wagner. Sheridan's original voice is heard in most of her songs, but for the song "In a Moment of Weakness", her voice was dubbed by Vera Van.

<i>One More Tomorrow</i> (film) 1946 film by Peter Godfrey

One More Tomorrow is a 1946 American drama film directed by Peter Godfrey and written by Charles Hoffman and Catherine Turney from the play The Animal Kingdom by Philip Barry. The film, starring Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Jane Wyman and Reginald Gardiner. It was released by Warner Bros. on June 1, 1946. A pre-code 1932 film, The Animal Kingdom, is also based on the play.

<i>April Showers</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by James V. Kern

April Showers is a 1948 American musical film directed by James V. Kern and written by Peter Milne. The film stars Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Alda, S. Z. Sakall, Robert Ellis and Richard Rober. The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 27, 1948.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 27 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
  3. ↑ Nora Prentiss at the TCM Movie Database.
  4. ↑ "Nora Prentiss", film review, Variety, December 31, 1946. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. "The Screen." New York Times, 22 February 1947, 16.
  6. ↑ Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward (1993). Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style ("Nora Prentiss" article, page 214) . Overlook TP. ISBN   0-87951-479-5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.