DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK
US, 1952, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Donna Corcoran, Jeanne Cagney, Elisha Cook Jr, Jim Backus.
Directed by Roy Ward Baker.
The screenplay for Don’t Bother to Knock (by Daniel Taradash, one-time president of the Motion Picture Academy, author of screenplays for From Here to Eternity, Storm Centre) seems typical of an episode of a series on television. It runs for only an hour and a quarter in itself. However, what makes the film very interesting is the cast. Richard Widmark was an unlikely star to be paired with Marilyn Monroe. However, at this stage Marilyn Monroe had appeared in a number of films in supporting roles from the Marx Brothers’ Love Happy to the classic Asphalt Jungle to All About Eve. She was about to appear in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Niagara and a big breakthrough in How to Marry a Millionaire and other bigger-budget films.
Also interesting in the cast is Anne Bancroft in her early years – aged twenty. She plays Widmark’s girlfriend – he a pilot, she a singer. However, Widmark becomes interested in a babysitter he sees across a hall – but underestimates what she is like, especially when she goes somewhat psychotic. This gives Marilyn Monroe a chance to act and to give some depth to characters rather than just simply be the star that she eventually came to be.
Direction is by Roy Ward Baker, English director who made such films as October Man, Seven Days to Noon, went to Hollywood for a flirtation with directing there and made Inferno and this film but returned to England. On return he made such interesting films as The One That Got Away and A Night to Remember, about the Titanic. In later years he was a genre director, including a number of British horror films.
1. An interesting and enjoyable film, a Marilyn Monroe vehicle, B Grade style?
2. The significance of the title, tone? The quality of the production, 20th Century Fox style, black and white photography, location, music?
3. The importance of the structure: the introduction to the setting with Lyn, her involvement with Jed and the introduction of his presence and character? Nell introduced within this situation? The interaction of each character, the time space of only one evening? How effective a compressed drama of disturbed relationships?
4. Comment on the film's communicating of the relationships, personalities, feelings? What was the point of presenting these characters? The values explored in their interaction?
5. Marilyn Monroe's portrayal of Nell? Her style of acting, presence? Mysterious and vague? Audience sympathy for her at the beginning, her uncle, the job? The fact that the audience know little about her, as did the parents and the child? The introduction of her erratic behaviour. the dress, her reaction to her uncle, the reaction to Jed phone calls? The gradual introduction of information, sympathy? Her revelation of herself in the encounter with Jed, the inconsistencies? The gradual emergence of madness, her threatening the child, the stories that she made up the possibility of the little girl falling to her death, her violence with her uncle, tying the girl up? The unreality of her lift. the background of the institution, her love for the flyer who was killed, imposing this presence on Jed? Did Nell lose the audience sympathy when the truth was revealed about her and she acted violently? The pathos of the ending and her being taken away? How interesting a glimpse into the psychology of a disturbed person?
6. Jed and Lyn as conventional types? Lyn and her work an a singer, her presence throughout the film especially the broadcasting of her singing? her learning to trust Jed because of this experience with Nell? Jed as callous and tough yet more sympathetic underneath, helping Nell, running away, returning? His fear and then the change? The self-revelation and the possibility of Lyn and Jed loving each other?
7. The importance of Nell's uncle and his work on the lift, his being trapped by Nell?
8. Comment on the minor characters and their portrayal, contribution: the parents, the little girl, the detective, the girls at the orphanage?
9. How melodramatic were the crises? how effective for the film? The build-up to the finals and audience sympathies with Nell? How interesting a glimpse at what in possible on one night in such a hotel?
