In her
first dramatic role Marilyn Monroe plays an emotionally disturbed babysitter,
Nell Forbes who unbeknown to the child’s parents, Ruth and Peter Jones, is
suffering from a traumatic psychoneurosis brought on by the death of her fiancé.
When Nell invites Jed Towers, who reminds her of her dead pilot to the Jones
room, they are at a convention downstairs in New Yorks upmarket McKinley Hotel,
he is happy to oblige this beautiful young woman. Until the child’s safety
becomes an issue he is unaware of her fragile mental state.
....reads a bedtime story. |
Roy Ward
Baker, best known for A Night to Remember
(1958) and The
Singer Not the Song (1961) which featured a delightfully camp
performance from Dirk Bogarde, directed Monroe in her 13th credited film
at a time when she was trying to prove her dramatic acting skills. Don’t
Bother to Knock (1952) was her first starring role and to be honest she
is the main reason to see this rather forgotten movie. She gives a very
believable performance as a mentally deranged person and it is alleged that she
based her character on how her mentally troubled mother behaved.
This
melodramatic noir type thriller was based on a novel entitled Mischief written by Charlotte Armstrong
and published in 1951, the screenplay was written by Daniel Taradash. Along
side Monroe it starred Richard Widmark as the pilot Jed Towers, Anne Bancroft,
in her first feature film as Lyn Lesley, Towers love interest and the bar
singer at the Manhattan hotel.
....the hotels singer. |
The
studio gave it a tag line that tried to cash in on both her looks and her
acting skill ‘Every inch a woman, ever
inch an actress’ they also described her as ‘a wicked sensation as the lonely girl in Room 809’ not sure if they
really knew how to market the ever improving star. It was bookended by a rom-com We’re not Married (1952) and the
screwball comedy Monkey Business
(1952). Even in what was regarded as her breakthrough role, Niagara (1953) 20th Century-Fox
still treated her like a sex object , at least in Don’t Bother to Knock they allowed her to act without the sexual
connotations that had accompanied her career to date.
Perhaps Nell was not cut out for babysitting? |
During
the filming in early 1952, the revelation that Marilyn had posed nude for a
calendar five years earlier hit the media. Although the studio tried to
persuade her to deny the story she would not, explaining that she was broke and
needed the money. She also admitted that she was not ashamed of it. Her truthfulness
and the beauty of the photo turned a potential career-ruining act into a great
deal of public sympathy and publicity for MM.
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