Don’t Bother to Knock (1952)

Directed by Roy Ward Baker. Starring Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Elisha Cook Jr., Anne Bancroft, Lurene Tuttle, Jim Backus, Verna Felton, Don Beddoe, Donna Corcoran.

Underwritten psychological thriller set in a New York City hotel. Widmark is a pilot staying at the hotel, having just been dumped by the joint’s bar singer (Bancroft), and Monroe is the troubled “babysitter” watching young Corcoran in the room across the way; she catches his eye, he swoops in without a second thought, but he doesn’t notice the scars on her wrists at first… Monroe is better than one would expect in her first co-headlining role, but there’s too little to work with here, and the filmmakers can’t seem to decide whether they want to make a tense potboiler or a serious melodrama. Bancroft’s first movie role.

59/100