Review of Don't Bother to Knock (1952) by Christopher S — 16 Sep 2011

One of Marilyn Monroe's fine performances in the attempt to be taken seriously as an actress, she gives a top notch and very creepy performance, but this thriller only goes so far.

An airline pilot gets dumped by his girlfriend in a hotel because she feels he is too distant and not caring. The pilot is pretty pissed, that is until he spots a sex blonde in the window across from his room, then that's when he takes the oppertunity to advance on the situation. But what begins as something out of a porno turns into a chilling psychological thriller where the blonde isn't who she says she is and we don't know what will happen next. Of course that's that the movie promises, but it doesn't deliver that. The only really interesting character is Monroe's. When we first see her she looks doped up but pretty normal when she accepts to babysit a child. Then there's this build up to reveal to us that she is mentally unsteady. We just know that nothing happy is going to wind up out of all this, and it's even more suspencful because there's a child involved. The concept is pretty desturbing in reality, but as fantasy, not only do some things not make a lot of sense but the thrills only go so far. We expect to see something scary, but what we're given is lackluster, tame, and when it comes to the climax there is no lasting appeal.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on the movie's story. It does have great appeal, but the most important element in a thriller is the presentation. The filmmaking in this movie is just as tame as the story. I got pulled into a few moments, but a lot of scenes fall flat where the should have counted. The cinematography is pretty amature if you look at it, and the cinematography adds nothing to the chills of what could have been an even scarier movie. The look of the hotel is pretty much how a hotel would look, but it is a fancy hotel with a bar, there's a party going on on the other side, so we're given a nice look for a nice hotel. Then there's the editing that cuts away to different characters we don't care about at awkward moments. I would have liked it to stay on one focus rather than cutting away to other people in the hotel that add nothing to the suspence on the moment.

No doubt, Marilyn acts her heart out. If you love Marilyn Monroe than you'll want to see this movie. But that's pretty much the only reason why you'ld watch this movie due to its weak directing, uninteresting cinematography, and a story that build to grab our attention, but not to make us want to come back.