Torch singer Petey Brown is beautiful and smart. The beautiful gets her in trouble. She'll need all of the smart to get out of it in this bluesy, boozy noir salute to tough dames in tough times. On a holiday visit to her family in the waning days of World War II, Petey expects a merry Christmas. Instead she gets a tangled web of mobsters, cheating wives, war-traumatized vets and the kind of love that grabs hold fast and goes wrong faster. Ida Lupino portrays Petey, scoring a triumph under the direction of Raoul Walsh, who helped put her on the road to stardom in the Bogart classic High Sierra. The Man I Love is also notable for its songbook of sophisticated standards and as the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's New York, New York.

Ida Lupino is a sultry nightclub seductress who tries to sing her way out from the clutches of a no-good mobster.