La tua bocca brucia

This is an odd film, if only for its credits. It was written by Daniel Taradash, a first-rate screenwriter who the next year would write the screenplay for From Here To Eternity. The director, Englishman Roy Ward Baker, had a varied and eclectic career, mostly in his native country, where he directed, among other films, A Night To Remember and Quatermass and the Pit. Screen sexpot Marilyn Monroe plays a psychotic babysitter who encounters a tough-minded and cynical airline pilot and causes him to change his outlook. Miss Monroe was not known for doing drama, which she plays here, in black and white no less, and is excellent. But that this was one of her first starring roles she seems a peculiar choice to play the troubled young woman. Richard Widmark, often a bad guy, is here only partly bad, and is proficient but rather dull and, for him, colorless. Dramatic actress Anne Bancroft plays a singer, and Widmark's girl, a role one might have expected Marilyn to play. And so it goes.

The movie is compelling, if never really entertaining, and seems at times as confused as Monroe's babysitter as to what sort of film it wants to be. It is a bit of a psychological drama, a bit of a thriller. filmed like a noir, studio-bound, which makes it also unrealistic, it is in many respects a mess, but a watchable one. The central set of the hotel in which nearly all the action takes place, is impressive, as are the various characters who either live, visit or work there, who at times seem like inhabitants of an enormous cave or reef, and as such denizens of the place rather than employees or guests. There is a nice sense of how dull night life can be in the heart of a supposedly exciting city (New York). There are no especially good or bad people in the film; just those who understand Monroe's plight, and empathize with her, and those that don't. Young Marilyn more than rises to the dramatic occasion, however, and gives a fine performance, far more worthy than the script, and more animated than her co-stars, and in the end steals the film and our hearts.

1952 was just before Marilyn became Marilyn and 10 short years before her death. Look at her character here and look at her performance. She plays a psychopath. brilliantly. Look into her eyes and tell me if she's not totally there. Dangerous and tender. Thorough and insane. I know I had seen this film before but the truth is I didn't remember. Another plus is an early glimpse at the wonderful Anne Bancroft, billed above Marilyn here. For film buffs this movie is a total must.

A hotel guest flirts with a beautiful woman after a breakup from his girlfriend. He is seduced by the woman while she is babysitting. The child wakes up and terrorizes the child and the guest. The moral to this movie is never judge a book by its cover. Marilyn Monroe give her best acting performance in the whole movie and makes you understand her character emotions through the story. Very rare to find a movie with this type of acting even today.

If you really want to see true vulnerability, watch Marilyn Monroe in the 1952 "Don't Bother to Knock" opposite Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft. She plays a disturbed girl and at one point she comes down in the elevator, and when the door opens, her face alone will break your heart.

Anne Bancroft was interviewed about Marilyn and said that she had not been expecting the reaction she would have to that scene. She said when those elevator doors opened and Marilyn came out of the elevator, it stunned her and the rest of the cast and crew to watch her, she seemed so authentically confused and lost and vulnerable. Bancroft said it was the hardest scene she has ever had to watch, because you felt it was really happening to Marilyn herself.

She truly was a "candle in the wind".

Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark star in this early Monroe star vehicle. This is one film you'd never see being made today, due to the new child-care sensibilities.

Jim Backus and Lorene Tuttle leave their child with a complete stranger while they go out for an evening. The stranger is Monroe, complete with wrist scars, who is the niece of the elevator man in the hotel where the couple is staying.

Mid-evening, she picks up with Widmark, who is more upset about his lounge singer girlfriend (Anne Bancroft) breaking up with him than he thought he would be - he and Monroe flirt from their respective rooms. Widmark goes to the room, expecting a night of fun.

Instead he and the hapless child get a night of terror, with Monroe believing Widmark is her dead pilot boyfriend and nearly killing not only the little girl but her uncle as well. Turns out, Marilyn's been institutionalized and her uncle (Elisha Cooke, Jr.) thought she was "nearly well."

Monroe is very good in this - very beautiful, of course, as well as vulnerable and believable. The wild look in her eyes when she scolds the little girl is downright scary.

One thing that has always bothered me about Monroe doing drama is her very excellent diction which always sounds studied and unnatural. It's a distraction in this film as well.

However, she's so watchable in everything - the camera just adored her - I have to believe that as she lived and aged, she would have had more chances at drama.

Widmark is excellent as the apparent cynic who proves to have more to him than his girlfriend thought - in fact, his character was much better with the child than Monroe's.

Bancroft's role is small and belies her future dramatic appearances; and there is a cameo by "Honeybee Gillis," Joan Blondell's sister Gloria, as a photographer.