Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Daniel Taradash (screenplay)
Charlotte Armstrong (novel)

Release Date:

18 July 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

You never met her type before...

Plot:

An airline pilot, dumped by his girlfriend, pursues a baby-sitter in his hotel...and gradually realizes she's dangerous.

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Psychological Thriller | Uncle | Psychopath | Elevator Operator

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	Jed Towers
Marilyn Monroe	...	Nell Forbes
Anne Bancroft	...	Lyn Lesley
Donna Corcoran	...	Bunny Jones
Jeanne Cagney	...	Rochelle
Lurene Tuttle	...	Ruth Jones
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Eddie Forbes
Jim Backus	...	Peter Jones
Verna Felton	...	Mrs. Emma Ballew
Willis Bouchey	...	Joe the Bartender (as Willis B. Bouchey)
Don Beddoe	...	Mr. Ballew

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #15705) | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The title credits music is re-used from Panic in the Streets (1950).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lyn and Jed get photographed in the bar by the camera lady, she snaps only one picture of them. When she brings the novelty items to their booth minutes later, each item (handkerchief, matchbook, ashtray, and postcard) shows a slightly different pose.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mrs. Emma Ballew: After all, we guests who live here from year to year, we deserve a little consideration, too.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess" (1996)

Soundtrack:

A ROLLIN' STONE

Sad . . . disturbing . . .

On so many levels. Not just because of the character Marilyn Monroe played . . . but also because of the course she afterwards chose to take, as a performer.

In life, MM was never the dumb-blonde clown she so often portrayed on film. Yet she chose to follow that path of "marketability" from her earliest days -- perhaps because of advice -- "The only thing I had on was the radio," she famously said regarding her early calendar shoot (though that quote was delivered to her by her public relations handler).

Yet, in "Don't Bother to Knock," we have evidence of a talent far deeper and more affecting than anything she ever did, before or since.

Though then, and still, a B-movie, DBTK remains a highly disturbing piece of work from a remarkable natural actress who subsequently decided to pursue -- who knows, whether from instinct, advice or "the line of least resistance" -- a career based on superficial appearance rather than emotive depth.

Finally, of course, she morphed into the silly, slithering, sewn-into-her-Jean-Louis-gown "songstress" at President Kennedy's birthday party in Madison Square Garden in 1962, all drug-addled spray-netted helmet-haired breathiness and off-key baby-voiced "vocalizing." In DBTK, however, is ample evidence of the powerfully effective actress she could have been, had she taken a different road.

This is not to criticize the choices she made as a performer.

Doubtless, she would not be the legend she remains today, had she lived into her 60s or 70s.

But DBTK remains an archive of a complex and affecting screen acting talent, caught at the fork in her career's road, who chose surface over substance.

No matter how beguiling MM will always remain as a screen icon, there is this one and only proof of a talent even more devastating -- had she the guts or the advice to honor and follow it.

Sad, and disturbing, indeed.