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Don't Bother to Knock
(1952)
Anne's Niche: Actress
Character: Lyn Leslie
Cast and Crew
My Too Cents: This is Anne's first feature film. Until this she had done live
TV movies (or Teleplays) but no motion pictures. Marilyn Monroe gives a great performance as the psychotic babysitter. It is
a very good movie, I liked it alot. If you want to buy it, it is easily found and the DVD has just been
recently released with the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection. I have not, however, seen it at any video
rental stores near me.
Synopsis:
___A taut little thriller, this film features Monroe
as a neurotic baby-sitter who is hired by Backus and Tuttle to mind their child, Corcoran.
Monroe arrives at their hotel suite, brought by her uncle, Cook, an elevator operator, who nervously
warns her to be on her best behavior. Widmark is an airline pilot staying at the hotel so he can see
his girl friend, Bancroft, who sings in the lounge. Bancroft breaks it off with Widmark, telling him
he is callous. Later Widmark meets Monroe, and the two become intimate in the Backus suite, interrupted
by Corcoran. Monroe explodes at the little girl, ordering her back into her bedroom. Cook arrives to
check on Monroe, and Widmark hides in the bathroom, emerging perplexed and accurately believing Monroe
is crazy. Monroe's explosive personality erupts when Cook makes a remark to her, and she smashes his
head with an ashtray. When Widmark believes Cook is unharmed he leaves, but only after seeing that
the little girl is safely in bed. He returns to Bancroft to tell her about the incident and she
takes him back after realizing his deep concern for the child. Then Widmark realizes that the child,
when he last saw her, was not in her own room. He races back to the suite to find Corcoran tied
to the bed and her mother, Tuttle, battling with Monroe, who has a razor. She apparently intended
to murder the child for interfering with her tryst with Widmark, whom she wrong-headedly came to
believe was her fiance. (Her real fiance had been a pilot killed in WW II.) With Bancroft at
his side, Widmark gently takes the razor from Monroe and convinces her that her fiance is really
dead. She surrenders meekly to police, who take her to a hospital in New York for treatment.
Bancroft decides that Widmark is indeed a compassionate man and plans to stay with him.
DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK is directed with a quick pace by Baker, the Taradash script is as tight as
a sardine can, and all the principals do well with their roles, especially lovely Mariln
Monroe. This was her 15th film and her first real dramatic part, one in which she is a standout as
a tormented, nerve-wrecked soul battling reality, a condition not unlike the state in which she found
herself just before her suicide. (TV Guide)
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