Review of Don't Bother to Knock

Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark star in this early Monroe star vehicle. This is one film you'd never see being made today, due to the new child-care sensibilities. Jim Backus and Lorene Tuttle leave their child with a complete stranger while they go out for an evening. The stranger is Monroe, complete with wrist scars, who is the niece of the elevator man in the hotel where the couple is staying. Mid-evening, she picks up with Widmark, who is more upset about his lounge singer girlfriend (Anne Bancroft) breaking up with him than he thought he would be - he and Monroe flirt from their respective rooms. Widmark goes to the room, expecting a night of fun. Instead he and the hapless child get a night of terror, with Monroe believing Widmark is her dead pilot boyfriend and nearly killing not only the little girl but her uncle as well. Turns out, Marilyn's been institutionalized and her uncle (Elisha Cooke, Jr.) thought she was "nearly well." Monroe is very good in this - very beautiful, of course, as well as vulnerable and believable. The wild look in her eyes when she scolds the little girl is downright scary. One thing that has always bothered me about Monroe doing drama is her very excellent diction which always sounds studied and unnatural. It's a distraction in this film as well. However, she's so watchable in everything - the camera just adored her - I have to believe that as she lived and aged, she would have had more chances at drama.

Widmark is excellent as the apparent cynic who proves to have more to him than his girlfriend thought - in fact, his character was much better with the child than Monroe's; Bancroft's role is small and belies her future dramatic appearances; and there is a cameo by "Honeybee Gillis," Joan Blondell's sister Gloria, as a photographer.