Don't Bother to KnockLoneliness can evoke desperate emotions in people, taking them to the dark places in their heart. Nell Forbes (Marilyn Monroe) experiences grief which clouds her judgment even long after a young man she knew had perished in the war. She has only just returned to society, and finds herself commissioned to watch a little girl for the night on behalf of her rich parents, while visiting her Uncle Eddie (Elisha Cook Jr.), who operates the elevator. When she catches the eye of Jed (Richard Widmark), a young man on the opposite side of the hotel, who is consumed with cynicism after his breakup with hotel lounge singer, Lyn (Anne Bancroft), the two meet, although their encounter proves quite different than what Jed may have had in mind.
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Don't Bother to Knock is a suspense film and a "film noir" drama. The story is set entirely in the elegant hotel where Nell visits, since Eddie figures the work would do her some good. Nell's past is hinted at initially, then revealed bit by bit through her interactions with her uncle and Jed. What makes Marilyn Monroe so effective in her casting as the psychologically fractured young woman is that it largely plays against type for the actress who heretofore had been widely regarded as a sex symbol, playing (and defining) the "dumb blonde" caricature in many of her prior films. 20th Century Fox released the picture with an altogether inappropriately suggestive cover, no doubt convinced that people who went to see a Marilyn Monroe picture were men interested in one thing. It is then somewhat ironic that Jed is intrigued by Nell under the same auspices, peeping across the courtyard, seeing the beautiful woman secretly wearing her rich employer's negligee, inviting himself over for a glass of rye. To be fair, Jed is not wholly a callous person, although he is embittered after the rejection he received from the young chanteuse he was seeing before, who happens to perform in the lounge in the very same hotel. Lyn tells her troubles at the beginning of Don't Bother to Knock to the bartender, not quite ready to pin down Jed as an insensitive, cold fellow. She makes it clear to Jed that because he has closed himself off from meaningful feelings, she knows that any relationship between them would not be satisfactory. Although loathe to admit it, Jed seeks out Nell because, like her, he is lonely, and looking for companionship and acceptance more than anything. When he starts to get wise to Nell's act at playing the role of an "heiress", dressed in fancy accessories and splashed with Italian perfume, his instinct kicks in and he makes to bolt. But when he starts to understand the pain which has really taken over Nell's heart, he resists a little less and a little less. It is through this awakening--which does come late in the already brief film--that his heart turns; not as drastically as, say, Ebenezer Scrooge, but enough for him to drop his guard and show compassion and sympathy, a quality which is always in fashion for an intelligent woman like Lyn.
Don't Bother to Knock feels unquestionably like a kind of "B-movie thriller", but in a good way, carried with not only a charm for the relatively simple and straightforward plot, but also blessed with a delightful cast of stars and talented players. Don't Bother to Knock happened to be Anne Bancroft's debut film, and she shines as the good-natured singer whose smart warmth is the draw for Jed and the audience. Elisha Cook Jr. always seems to possess a kind of nervous energy, talking a little too fast and acting a bit pedantic, with an awkward joke or being overly involved in affairs of the hotel. He makes a great choice as a relative to the even more awkward Nell, hinting at a hereditary tic. Even in smaller roles, character actors like Jim Backus, as the well-off journalist who hires Nell, or Verna Felton as the nosy resident hotel guest, give Don't Bother to Knock a familiarity which allows the story to progress without justifying the reasons for these characters' behavior. Don't Bother to Knock was an effort by Marilyn Monroe to "prove she could act". I've always felt that this statement was problematic, because one has merely to see her prior films to see that she was always a gifted actress. However, the perception was that if she were not cast in a role with some pathos, it wasn't really acting, just playing. Of course this is phooey, but Don't Bother to Knock at least represents the effort of the lovely actress to segue into more serious roles, although it would still prove the exception rather than the rule. These were the efforts of a woman who was trapped in a mold trying to break free, an effort which must have felt as strenuous as it is for Nell to cope with the suffering in her heart, feeling that no one can understand her. Nell's illness is hinted at from the start, largely in her nervousness and the sense that something is unsettling about her. It isn't until she invites Jed over and goes to apply lipstick and we see the scars on her wrists that we understand the extent of her suffering, a detail which would prove tragically familiar some ten years later when Marilyn Monroe was discovered dead by suicide. One wonders just how much of Marilyn Monroe's own feelings are channeled into Nell, as it can be with any actor, and what demons haunted her. It's a pity that there wasn't someone, even someone like Jed, to bring her around when the chips were down, when the suffering grew too great and the confusion was overwhelming. It's not often one gets to really listen for the symptoms of a soul in pain, but one must act when one does; that's the message of Don't Bother to Knock.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological drama and thriller which deals with mental illness and loneliness. It is straight-forward, clean and neat, but thoroughly enjoyable as a result, loaded with exceptional talent.
Don't Bother to Knock feels unquestionably like a kind of "B-movie thriller", but in a good way, carried with not only a charm for the relatively simple and straightforward plot, but also blessed with a delightful cast of stars and talented players. Don't Bother to Knock happened to be Anne Bancroft's debut film, and she shines as the good-natured singer whose smart warmth is the draw for Jed and the audience. Elisha Cook Jr. always seems to possess a kind of nervous energy, talking a little too fast and acting a bit pedantic, with an awkward joke or being overly involved in affairs of the hotel. He makes a great choice as a relative to the even more awkward Nell, hinting at a hereditary tic. Even in smaller roles, character actors like Jim Backus, as the well-off journalist who hires Nell, or Verna Felton as the nosy resident hotel guest, give Don't Bother to Knock a familiarity which allows the story to progress without justifying the reasons for these characters' behavior. Don't Bother to Knock was an effort by Marilyn Monroe to "prove she could act". I've always felt that this statement was problematic, because one has merely to see her prior films to see that she was always a gifted actress. However, the perception was that if she were not cast in a role with some pathos, it wasn't really acting, just playing. Of course this is phooey, but Don't Bother to Knock at least represents the effort of the lovely actress to segue into more serious roles, although it would still prove the exception rather than the rule. These were the efforts of a woman who was trapped in a mold trying to break free, an effort which must have felt as strenuous as it is for Nell to cope with the suffering in her heart, feeling that no one can understand her. Nell's illness is hinted at from the start, largely in her nervousness and the sense that something is unsettling about her. It isn't until she invites Jed over and goes to apply lipstick and we see the scars on her wrists that we understand the extent of her suffering, a detail which would prove tragically familiar some ten years later when Marilyn Monroe was discovered dead by suicide. One wonders just how much of Marilyn Monroe's own feelings are channeled into Nell, as it can be with any actor, and what demons haunted her. It's a pity that there wasn't someone, even someone like Jed, to bring her around when the chips were down, when the suffering grew too great and the confusion was overwhelming. It's not often one gets to really listen for the symptoms of a soul in pain, but one must act when one does; that's the message of Don't Bother to Knock.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological drama and thriller which deals with mental illness and loneliness. It is straight-forward, clean and neat, but thoroughly enjoyable as a result, loaded with exceptional talent.