Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Marilyn without the Strasbergs, without the Russian drama coach, without the Method, without the hours locked in her trailer shaking with stage fright. And it is her best ever acting job. This is the ONLY film that really taps into the 'off-kilter' and wounded quality of MM and uses it as an indispensable element of the movie. Elisha Cook's little turn as an elevator operator and his repartee with M.M. is a memorable minor moment and one of many such delights scattered throughout. I've heard that Richard Widmark was very nice to Marilyn and helpful on the set. Of course with 40 or 50 takes for even short scenes, a Billy Wilder can put up on the screen a dazzling Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot but this is the real Marilyn not just her sheer 'luminescent beauty'. Even by the time she made Niagara, something was lost already, though she was very good in that.

While the movie was artfully crafted it was not necessarily enthralling. The plot sort of dragged on, only peaking interest with Marilyn's acting. In this film she was slightly deeper than her previous roles, moving beyond simple sex appeal. her role in this film is deeper, darker. She is a babysitter, yet she is involved with a random man. she is deceptive in that she had spent time in a mental institution, she hid this from the bosses. the lighting and cinematography in this film were important in the making of marilyn's character. the shadows kept her hidden in certain points, attaining the certain feel of film noir.

Having never seen a Marilyn Monroe film I was expecting a little more. The actor Richard Widmark reminds me a lot of John Wayne. He plays a very serious character in this movie. I found the plot to be weird. The guy meets a woman he sees in a room across the way. Then he goes across to meet her and she falls in love with him. It just seems a little too made up. Marilyn Monroe plays a very mentally fragile woman. But she does it very well. She's very good at playing this crazy damsel. The Lighting in this movie makes Marilyn Monroe look perfect in every scene. It is also used very well when Marilyn is threatening the girl. Everything is dark which relates to her sinister threats. The camera work is also good. The movie is filled with close up's of all the conversations. One shot in the movie that is very good is when Marilyn rides down the elevator and the door pens but the cage is still there making it look like she's in jail. I didn't particularly like this movie because the plot was just too weird for me.

"Don't Bother To Knock" was decently entertaining, if somewhat short. The fact that it's entirely set in one location doesn't help it any - more than halfway through the movie I began to wonder when it'd leave the hotel, but to my surprise (and dismay) it never did. I suppose it turned out to be a very different movie than I was led to believe it was (but that's more the fault of whoever wrote the description for it on Netflix than of the movie itself). I thought it was interesting how Nell's mental illness was portrayed. In some scenes she's detached from reality, in others she borders on deranged (such as when she almost pushes the kid out the window), but in the end she's seen as tragic. I don't know if this is the first film to portray mental illness in such a light, but I'd imagine it's among the first to portray the mentally ill as more than just "crazy."