Don’t Bother to Knock is a 1952 American psychological film noir thriller starring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe and directed by Roy Ward Baker. The screenplay was written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong.
Monroe is featured as a disturbed babysitter watching a child at the same New York hotel where a pilot, played by Widmark, is staying. Her strange behavior makes him increasingly aware that she is the last person with whom the parents should have entrusted their daughter.
It was Monroe’s 19th and an attempt to prove to critics that she could act in a dramatic role after starting her career in a string of comedies. The working titles of the film were Mischief and Night Without Sleep, the latter of which was the release title of another 1952 Twentieth Century-Fox film. Dorothy McGuire was originally cast as the picture’s star, with Jules Dassin set to direct.
This movie marked the first time Monroe and composer Lionel Newman worked together in the same movie. The title credit music was originally composed by Lionel’s brother Alfred for the film Panic in the Streets (1950).
Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Don’t Bother to Knock in 1952.
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