- Release year: 1952
- Director: Roy Ward Baker.
- Producer: Julian Blaustein.
- Screenplay by: Daniel Taradash.
- Cinematography by: Lucien Ballard.
Synopsis: a woman hired as a nanny struggles with her mental health after she suffers from a great tragedy.
Shotgun Commentary: a clunky mental-health exploration with great acting involved.
Review
Don’t Bother to Knock is a psychodrama that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout its whole running time. Monroe is positively hypnotising in her first dramatic lead role in a movie that, despite a few obvious flaws, delivers an absolutely unique experience. This film will be screened as part of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival on their “GFF Marilyn Monroe 100” programme, created to celebrate the 100th year of her birthday. More info after the review.
Context
The film follows Nell Forbes (Marilyn Monroe). She is a young woman who is put in charge of a little girl while her parents are out. It is supposed to be a straightforward job: stay in a hotel room, put the girl to sleep, and wait until the parents come back. However, her plans are completely derailed the second she meets Jed (Richard Widmark).
He is a hotel guest staying in the room across from her, so they see each other through the window. After a rough conversation with his ex, he decides to call the mysterious woman from the window—Nell—to flirt and maybe even get lucky. Sadly for him, the second he arrives in her room, he begins to notice something is off about Nell. A feeling that will only grow throughout the film.
An icon
This is probably the furthest Monroe has ever been from playing a seductress. Her roles usually involve some kind of sex appeal. Yet she looks equally comfortable playing a tragic character with no charisma whatsoever. If anything, this film is definitive proof of what an incredible actress Monroe was. Despite Hollywood’s fixation with turning her into nothing but a sex icon, as seen in the film’s poster. Her performance here is raw, devastating, and honest. Her character is not looking for a man; she is looking for a ghost.
As such, this can hardly qualify as a romantic film but more of a dramatic thriller. One in which you witness firsthand the destruction that wars cause even far away from the battlefield. It is a stressful but also heartbreaking story in which there are no villains or heroes, just humans trying to survive another day.
The unavoidable reality
That being said, there is also a 50s stench of sexism all over the film. It is one thing to care for a mentally unstable person but another one entirely to treat all women like children. This phenomenon is common in films of this decade—century, really—and it is portrayed as casual “harmless” sexism. It is sometimes even portrayed as funny or cute. Calling grown women kids, dismissing their problems as tantrums or hysteria, singlehandedly deciding that they are feeling something just because you say so, etc.
Each of these moments—and there are A LOT—will probably make it necessary for you to count down from ten slowly. Sadly, that is what you get in most movies of the time, and there is no way around it. But if you manage to get through it without pulling all your hair or throwing something at the screen, congratulations, you will witness a pretty great feature.
All in all, Don’t Bother to Knock is the ultimate proof that, no matter how much Hollywood tries to put their actresses in comfortably digestible boxes, women will do what they have always done: persevere, prove dumb people wrong, and let their talent speak louder than the prejudice they face. This wonderful film not only features incredible performances, but it is also a beautiful essay on grief and the range of devastation of war.
Don’t Bother to Knock will be screened for free at the Glasgow Film Theatre on the 2nd of March at 12:20 as part of the 2026 Glasgow Film Festival. More information on this screening here!
Advice to take from this movie:
- Don’t go into strangers’ hotel rooms.
- Looking healthy is not the same as being healthy.
- A film and its poster may have absolutely nothing in common.
What’s your take? Have you watched Don’t Bother to Knock? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message on my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀