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Don't Bother To Knock

1952, Movie, NR, 76 mins

Don't Bother To Knock: Review

DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK
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A taut little thriller, this film features Monroe as a neurotic baby-sitter who is hired by Backus and Tuttle to mind their child, Corcoran. Monroe arrives at their hotel suite, brought by her uncle, Cook, an elevator operator, who nervously warns her to be on her best behavior. Widmark is an airline pilot staying at the hotel so he can see his girl friend, Bancroft, who sings in the lounge. Bancroft breaks it off with Widmark, telling him he is callous. Later Widmark meets Monroe, and the two become intimate in the Backus suite, interrupted by Corcoran. Monroe explodes at the little girl, ordering her back into her bedroom. Cook arrives to check on Monroe, and Widmark hides in the bathroom, emerging perplexed and accurately believing Monroe is crazy. Monroe's explosive personality erupts when Cook makes a remark to her, and she smashes his head with an ashtray. When Widmark believes Cook is unharmed he leaves, but only after seeing that the little girl is safely in bed. He returns to Bancroft to tell her about the incident and she takes him back after realizing his deep concern for the child. Then Widmark realizes that the child, when he last saw her, was not in her own room. He races back to the suite to find Corcoran tied to the bed and her mother, Tuttle, battling with Monroe, who has a razor. She apparently intended to murder the child for interfering with her tryst with Widmark, whom she wrong-headedly came to believe was her fiance. (Her real fiance had been a pilot killed in WW II.) With Bancroft at his side, Widmark gently takes the razor from Monroe and convinces her that her fiance is really dead. She surrenders meekly to police, who take her to a hospital in New York for treatment. Bancroft decides that Widmark is indeed a compassionate man and plans to stay with him. DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK is directed with a quick pace by Baker, the Taradash script is as tight as a sardine can, and all the principals do well with their roles, especially lovely Marilyn Monroe. This was her 15th film and her first real dramatic part, one in which she is a standout as a tormented, nerve-wracked soul battling reality, a condition not unlike the state in which she found herself just before her suicide. leave a comment
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