Beautiful. But Beware!

 

This is my entry in the Marilyn Monroe Blogathon hosted by Hoofers and Honeys.

 

 

 

The story behind Marilyn Monroe is full of the kind of stuff that makes gossip columnists salivate. From her highly publicized marriages to baseball great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, to her rumored dalliances with the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy and her scandal inducing appearance in Playboy magazine, nearly everything about Marilyn's life was on display to the public. Much of the publicity was probably engineered on purpose by Marilyn herself. 

One of the more interesting events I found in Marilyn's "life in the public eye" story was when a shoulder strap snapped on her dress during a press conference, possibly making Marilyn the inventor of the "wardrobe malfunction"... It's hard to believe, after reading about her career, that much of her public persona happened without her engineering it to her advantage.   

 

 

 

 

Don't Bother to Knock (1952):

This film is somewhat of an anomaly in the albeit way too short film career of Marilyn Monroe. But it is a window into what she might have been if she hadn't been so entrenched into the ditzy blonde sexpot image that made up her filmography. Completely out of character compared to most of the rest of her roles, here she is a plain Jane character who is just slightly off, mentally.  (Slightly?) 

The story was based on a suspense novel, Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong. It's probably safe to say that the 1950's public was not ready for such a stark character as Nell (Marilyn Monroe). It comes out within the film that she had been in a relationship with a man named Phillip who had been a pilot in WWII and had been killed in action. The death of her boyfriend ultimately had caused her to land in a mental institution, but she had been released recently, pronounced cured. But that may not be the case.

 

Nell's uncle, Eddie (Elisha Cook, Jr.), has been helping her and arranged for her to be a babysitter for a couple staying at the McKinley Hotel, where Eddie works as an elevator operator. Eddie is unaware that Nell may not be quite as "cured" as everyone has been led to believe. 

 

As such he is confident that she will make a good babysitter for Bunny Jones (Debbie Corcoran). Bunny's parents, Peter and Ruth (played Jim Backus and Lurene Tuttle) leave Bunny in the hands of Nell while Peter is in attendance to an awards celebration downstairs in the ballroom.

 

Nell shows the beginnings of her instability when, after seeing Bunny safely to bed, she takes advantage of the situation, putting on a nélilgeé and jewelry that belongs to Ruth. Meanwhile, in a room across the way, Jed (Richard Widmark) sees her through the window and tries to hook up with her by phone. 

 

Jed is in town because he had come to try to patch up a relationship with his own girlfriend, Lyn (Anne Bancroft in her first film). Lyn works as a lounge singer in the hotel ballroom.

 

Jed is looking basically for someone on the rebound from his broken relationship with Lyn. Part of the reason that Jed and Lyn are having trouble is because Jed is somewhat a cad, not caring too much about others but himself. 

Eddie keeps showing up, and he is flabbergasted, first by the fact that Nell has raided a guest's wardrobe, and then later by the fact that Nell has invited a stranger into the hotel, when she was supposed to be just babysitting Bunny.

Jed gradually starts to realize something is a little off with Nell, especially when she starts acting like he, Jed, is the return of the dead boyfriend. Nell is gradually losing it. Bunny is in danger now, too, because she knows too much. Nell ties her up and gags her because she is convinced that Bunny is threatening her progress in finding love, with Jed, or more realistically in her mind, Phillip.

More danger makes it's way into the story when a nosy guest, Emma (Verna Felton), becomes suspicious of what is going on in the room across the way, especially after sees young Bunny in the window and Nell almost push her out.

 

 

This film noir output is one that probably gets overlooked when discussing Marilyn's oeuvre. She had played more serious roles before, but none of them came close to matching the unhinged character of Nell. The character of Nell and her mental instability is foreshadowed early on when a close up of her wrists indicate that she had tried to commit suicide at some point in her past (hence the reason she had been installed in a mental institution earlier). 

The hardest part of the movie to accept is the ending when, after Nell has been escorted away by the police, it appears that Lyn and Jed may have a newfound respect for each other. Now, be honest, ladies... if you found out the guy you had an on-again off-again relationship was making time with a girl who looked like Marilyn Monroe not 15 minutes after you told him you wanted to break off the relationship, would you be so receptive as to take him back? Sometimes that Breen finger in the pie gets a tad annoying, if you ask me.  Gotta end on a happy note, no matter what...

Give this movie a shot. Marilyn may not be Oscar material in this outing, but it will definitely open your eyes to what could have been her potential. Maybe a bad example on my part, but I could easily see her in the role of Jason's mom (Betsy Palmer) from Friday the 13th, maybe even in the role of Alex (Glenn Close) in Fatal Instinct. I think she plays the role of the unhinged femme fatale pretty well.  

Well, that wraps up today's jaunt into the film world. Drive safely folks.

Quiggy