A modestly made and produced drama with thriller elements,DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK's virtues are mostly due to it's decent cast (Richard Widmark,Anne Bancroft,Marilyn Monroe,Elisha Cook Jnr) which takes one's mind off the sometimes dull script and average direction (by Briton Roy Ward Baker,here billed as Roy Baker).The story itself is pretty slight,if nonetheless a trifle daring for the early 1950's;a fighter and airline pilot (Widmark) tries to rekindle his romance with a nightclub singer (Bancroft) while she works at a hotel.Meanwhile,a hotel elevator operator (Cook Jnr) manages to get some babysitting work for his niece (Monroe) there after she was released from an institution,though it is obvious that she is still very disturbed (still pining over the death of her fiancé,in aerial combat),putting the child involved in considerable danger.
The film as a whole is somewhat static and stagey,with (barring the start and end titles) the total absence of a musical score which could've enhanced several of the more dramatic scenes.Some of the plot contrivances are sometimes far-fetched as well (particularly when after barely making contact with her initially,Widmark makes his way over to Marilyn's apartment in the hope of a new romance),with an ending that seems to rather improbably tie up all the plot's various loose ends.
The film's most notable aspect is the performance of Marilyn Monroe.Made about a year or so before she really hit the big time,she is surprisingly deglamorised and plaintive here,(aside from a few brief moments) a far cry from later roles such as GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES,THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH and SOME LIKE IT HOT.But this is not a real problem as she gives a convincing portrayal of a vulnerable,emotionally damaged young woman (which sadly was more or less the case for her in real life) in which she only sparingly uses her familiar breathy voice that became commonplace in her best known roles.This certainly isn't one of her best known parts,but deserves more attention as she showed beneath the looks was a very capable and talented natural performer,both dramatically and comically.Widmark,Bancroft and the ever-reliable Cook Jnr are also fine in their roles,but the relatively short running time (around 75 minutes),allied with the slightly prosaic feel to DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK gives the impression that 20th Century Fox looked on this as a fairly mundane try-out for their rapidly emerging new star.Despite these factors,MM does not disappoint and the film retains a reasonable degree of interest to the present day.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.
The film as a whole is somewhat static and stagey,with (barring the start and end titles) the total absence of a musical score which could've enhanced several of the more dramatic scenes.Some of the plot contrivances are sometimes far-fetched as well (particularly when after barely making contact with her initially,Widmark makes his way over to Marilyn's apartment in the hope of a new romance),with an ending that seems to rather improbably tie up all the plot's various loose ends.
The film's most notable aspect is the performance of Marilyn Monroe.Made about a year or so before she really hit the big time,she is surprisingly deglamorised and plaintive here,(aside from a few brief moments) a far cry from later roles such as GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES,THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH and SOME LIKE IT HOT.But this is not a real problem as she gives a convincing portrayal of a vulnerable,emotionally damaged young woman (which sadly was more or less the case for her in real life) in which she only sparingly uses her familiar breathy voice that became commonplace in her best known roles.This certainly isn't one of her best known parts,but deserves more attention as she showed beneath the looks was a very capable and talented natural performer,both dramatically and comically.Widmark,Bancroft and the ever-reliable Cook Jnr are also fine in their roles,but the relatively short running time (around 75 minutes),allied with the slightly prosaic feel to DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK gives the impression that 20th Century Fox looked on this as a fairly mundane try-out for their rapidly emerging new star.Despite these factors,MM does not disappoint and the film retains a reasonable degree of interest to the present day.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.