Don't Bother to Knock

In 1952 Richard Widmark starred opposite a relatively new actress--Marilyn Monroe. This was her first dramatic starring role, a chance to prove that she could act.

The film, directed by Roy Baker, is a taut psychological thriller. Widmark plays a pilot who is in New York because he's just gotten a Dear John letter from his girlfriend, a lounge singer in a hotel (played by Anne Bancroft, quite good in her first film role). He tries to talk her out of the breakup and she finally has to tell him that she wants out because he's cold and cynical.

All of this happens before the real plot of the movie unfolds. Monroe plays the niece of the elevator operator, Elisha Cook. He's gotten her a job babysitting at the hotel. There's something a bit off about her, and this is confirmed when we see a closeup of the scars on her wrists. Widmark, back in his room after Bancroft's brush-off, spots Monroe through the window across a courtyard. A smooth talker, he manages to get into the room and finds out just how crazy Monroe is.

I liked this film a lot because you couldn't quite tell where it was going next. When I say it was taut, I mean like a string on a tennis racquet, as it is only 76 minutes long but packs a lot of plot into those minutes (movies were a lot shorter those days as double features were common). It is a strange experience to watch Monroe playing the part of a girl who's not playing with a full deck, considering how she met her end. Also, to those of who didn't grow up with her when she was alive, her breathy delivery can seem like self-parody. But it's still a solid performance and is a bit of evidence that she was a better actress than many think.

But this is Widmark's show in many respects, even though he's the straight man to Monroe's cuckoo. His sardonic delivery and easy charisma are a pleasure to watch, and he has a way with a line like, "The female race is really cheesing me up!" I also smiled to hear a line that must have been an inside joke, when Bancroft says to him, "My mother always warned me about a high forehead." This reference to Widmark's rapidly receding hairline was also used by Barbara Bel Geddes in Panic in the Streets. It appears that a lot of sport was made with Widmark on his tonsorial curse.