Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) – 3/5

A contender for Monroe’s most unusual

„Don’t Bother to Knock“ is an American English-language live action film from the year 1952, so this one is already over 70 years old now, maybe even 75 if you come here a little later to read this review of mine. Often with films from this era, it was the case that comedy had color and drama movies were in black-and-white and even this was not a general rule, then it also applies here. The film does have some comedic inclusions and honestly I think they were all really good and worked incredibly well, but at the center of it all, this is a drama movie, maybe even with thriller elements here and there and these mostly come from Monroe’s character like when she hits her uncle or is about to do something much worse perhaps to the child actress in here. But I am diving already deeper into the story than I am supposed to. Let’s look at the basics first before we really go into detail. It is a black-and-white film as I already implied and it is not a long film by any means, barely makes it past the 75-minute mark. An unusual running time, no matter if we are looking at today or back then, but today even more unusual perhaps. I watched this film tonight on the occasion of a Marilyn Monroe film retrospective and the room was pretty empty. This may have had to do with the fact that they showed it really late and that tomorrow is not the weekend, but I think in general it is not a film that really many do remember. There were only two other people in my sitting. But the film deserves to be seen by more I would say. It is not worse than several other Monroe movies that attracted much bigger audiences, even better than some of those.

The fact that this film has been forgotten by many is also due to it not being one of the films Monroe made with Wilder, Huston or Hawks you can say. Director Roy Ward Baker is not famous by any means and same can be said about the two writers here I suppose and their names are Daniel Taradash and Charlotte Armstrong. The latter is the one who wrote the novel the film is based on and this actually only happened a year before the movie, so the adaptation was as fresh as it gets and Taradash surely delivered a little later when he won a writing Oscar for another project, his only nomination at the same time. If we look at the cast, Monroe is definitely not the only one who deserves being mentioned here. The male lead is Richard Widmark, who five years earlier managed to rare feat to be nominated for an Oscar with his very first performance and that was not too long before this movie here. It was a supporting performance though and stayed his only Oscar nomination until the end of his career and life. And then there is Anne Bancroft. She eventually became one of Hollywood’s greatest actresses herself later on, not only because of her Oscar win, but everybody knows Mrs. Robinson now of course. She had a few television parts before this film, but you can say that her turn here launched her transition to the big screen and the character was fairly significant as well for somebody who is almost a rookie still. Maybe the biggest supporting character the film has. She even had to bring musical talent if she was singing herself. I also see she was only 20 when this movie got made? I never would have thought so. She looked older. As for Marilyn, she has the baitiest character of the film and a bit disappointing that she did not score any awards attention for her portrayal here. Or that the film got ignored altogether.

At the beginning, you could have still thought she is just a harmless girl with dreams who once wants to wear the priceless earrings and jewelry in general, but truth is she is just a babysitter for the rich folks. A girl can dream, can’t she? But with how things change towards the end and she almost becomes a dangerous psychopath was quite something and you would not expect it unless you read a plot summary before watching I suppose. What a twisted turn of events. Also, what she does to keep the girl quiet then. Said girl is played by Donna Corcoran. Solid child performance, but she also disappeared from the limelight eventually, around the time Monroe died. Way too early for both of them. Corcoran has not acted in way over half a century now and will surely never return. But hey, at least she is still alive if I am not mistaken. Cook Jr. Was nice to watch here as well and he has been in quite a few films way more known than this one and they should give him a star on the Hollywood Boulevard. He always got me curious when his character was seen here. But back to the two leads, the way they „meet“ was interesting you can say and also Monroe’s character’s worries there that he has nothing honorable on his mind when the truth is she is the one who is fairly insane. But she is a victim at the same time somehow because of what happened to her, how she lost a loved one etc.

As I am getting closer to the end of my review, there are still two aspects I really wanna talk about a bit more in detail: The first I mentioned already relatively early I think and this would be the comedy. I liked it a lot. It was not frequent, but very sharp and spot-on and entertained me well when it was on. The funniest moment for me was maybe the elevator moment with the ups and downs in the man’s life, but also how he says afterwards that people usually find this funny. I know I did! Same is true for the scene with the dog and the elevator and how the male protagonist managed to get it inside with a little trick/treat that nobody sees. His general comment about the female gender was also hilarious. Gender justice warriors in 2023 would be in arms there for sure. The turtle comment I liked as well, just like the moment how she hands him a bottle of alcohol into the bathroom or how this old man is not really in the mood of supporting his worried wife’s plans to check up on the girl and what is going on in the room. There were quite a few inclusions that made me smile or even laugh a bit, also the fake dinner table speech. Very nice. Not just the ones I listed here, but even others. The dialogue writing was pretty good, especially in the film’s lighter moments. As for the other inclusion I want to talk about, I did not mean the title of the film that surely could have been better, but I am referring to the ending which was sadly pretty poor. How we are supposed to believe there that a few words from the man change everything and that Monroe’s character all of a sudden gets a grip on reality because of those. That made no sense, just like how she even managed to get out of the room unnoticed before that, even if she is caught downstairs. It is not any better that Bancroft’s character all of a sudden then develops an interest again in the man because he finally started caring for others and this is the key reason. Does she want him to care for herself there too? Maybe. But it still did not feel too realistic, also how it is implied there that the two will maybe become a couple again then. I still find it baffling how young Bancroft was back then, seems to go completely against the idea that her character was already in a long(er) relationship with Widmark’s, but oh well.

As for Monroe, it is also never clear to what extent Widmark’s interest is of a romantic nature. He even admits it at one point when he came over to her. So there is some attraction for sure and not just from his side. She also calls him very attractive on one occasion I think. But yeah, we have no idea which of the two girls he will be with eventually. Looks like he can really choose between them, but only a sequel could have explained that. Anyway, I am giving this film that is a short film without being an actual short film a thumbs-up now and this was never in doubt. The drama/thriller story was alright, but what really won me over was the comedy writing. I have seen on other old (Monroe) films that they used humor that had not aged too well, but here it is the opposite and every line that was meant to be funny is pretty much a winner. Very delightful surprised. As I stated earlier I think, this film is definitely on the underseen side. I suggest you give it a watch and you surely won’t be disappointed. Maybe you will not find all the moments funny that I liked or only some of them, but then other segments may entertain you. This film gets a thumbs-up and, even if I really wished the ending could have been better as it all went wrong there in the filmmakers‘ attempt to pull through with Hollywood masculinity and female submission, this thumbs-up was never really in doubt. At the end, they also removed all the comedy, which did not help either. This moment with the razorblade was perhaps the most serious from the entire film, even if it did not end in tragedy and same is true for the scenes with the uncle and the girl that I talked about earlier. No damage done here that could not be effortlessly reversed. Otherwise, it maybe could have turned into a psychological horror film even. It would not have been better or worse that way then. It’s just a solid watch altogether.