Jonathan Pearson

Of all my favorite movie genres, Film Noir happens to be my favorite--with Comedy not far behind. Something about the melodramatic acting (accompanied by the melodramatic musical score) makes for a wonderful evening! Some people like horror films, I enjoy melodrama! For the first part of our series, I chose a rare, dramatic (more psychotic) role played by Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother To Knock (1952) with Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft! I reviewed another film with Monroe and Clark Gable last week, but that was a tame dramatic role compared to the mentally unstable performance in this film!

Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a young girl from out West who comes to live with her Uncle Eddie. He works as the elevator operator at the McKinley Hotel in New York City. Noticing some guests needed a babysitter for the evening, Eddie recommends his niece for the job. However, no one knows the trouble she’s about to bring to this family…

In the lobby downstairs, Widmark plays Jed Towers, a crass man who comes to the hotel to talk to his girlfriend, Lyn Lesley, the hotel lounge singer played by Bancroft.

She sent him a “Dear John” letter, but he wants her back. After some quarreling, he leaves and goes upstairs to his room.

Nell puts the young girl she’s babysitting to sleep and starts to go through her mother’s things. She puts on the strange women’s négligée, her diamonds and perfume. She starts pretending she’s a very wealthy woman.

Across the courtyard, Jed notices Nell. Seeing his hopes with Lyn dashed, he decides he might have a fling with this young blonde. He dials the operator for her room. She hesitantly answers, but agrees to let him come over. They chat for awhile until the little girl interrupts them. Needing some fresh air, Nell opens the window and the little girl goes to look at the courtyard below. For an instant, Nell contemplates pushing the girl out the window until a guest across the courtyard screams and the girl gets down from the window. A few minutes later, her Uncle Eddie comes and interrupts her little tête-à-tête and tells her to take off the other woman’s clothes and jewelry. 

Suddenly, Nell starts to unravel. She believes Jed is her dead fiancé and falls madly in love with him. Meanwhile, little girl comes in again and interrupts them and Nell won’t have any more of it. She bashes her uncle on the head. While Jed is tending to him, she takes the little girl into the other room and ties her up. The other guests hear the noise and come up to investigate. Jed sneaks out not noticing that the little girl is tied up on the bed. He runs downstairs to talk to Lyn, who’s still performing in the downstairs lounge. 

Meanwhile, Nell gets the guests to leave. The mother worries about her little girl and comes to check on her. Discovering her little girl tied up, she fights with Nell, who gets roughed up in the process.

Nell runs downstairs and grabs a razor from the hotel gift shop. The police surround her until Jed and Lyn come to the rescue. They discover Nell was just released from the mental hospital where she was recovering after the death of her fiancé.

The police take her away to the local mental hospital and Jed and Lyn reconcile their differences--happy to be sane—and live happily ever after... Definitely a must-see! Marilyn Monroe gives a tour-de-force performance! Stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950) in part two of our classic film noir series!