Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

Nell Forbes was by far the darkest and most volatile character Marilyn Monroe had ever portrayed in her entire career. Written by Daniel Taradash and directed by Roy Ward Baker, Don't Bother To Knock - a chilling and uncommonly masterful film noir thriller - gives its viewers an up-close glimpse into the crevices of a deeply disturbed human soul. Need a babysitter ... anyone? Yet another five star oeuvre, Don't Bother To Knock is an effort of prodigious degree in classic cinema.

Just a couple of years back, I picked up this mammoth 17-film DVD collection of Marilyn Monroe's films for a really good price, only to find that the ridiculous way the discs were placed in the digipack basically ruined them, and after watching the movies the best that I could, I reluctantly had to part with it, hoping the set would soon be released at a decent price on the more resilient blu (as you can tell, I'm old-school and low-fi, but I'm hoping to quickly remedy this problem!). As you can tell by any of my prior reviews of Richard Widmark's films, I'm a huge fan of his, and he's easily one of my favourite and most entertaining and watchable actors of the period. As well, Roy Ward Baker is one of the most underrated directors of the period--his entry in The Criterion Collection, 'A Night to Remember', is easily the best telling of the 'Titanic' tragedy. Thus simply on the basis of those three alone, I heartily recommend the film to any adventurous cinephiles of this era.