Introduction by Eddie Muller on Tuesday, July 14

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!