DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK **

 At just 76 minutes this B-Movie thriller, directed by British director Roy Ward Baker in the U.S., is just the right length and features an early dramatic performance from a 25 year old Marilyn Monroe. OK, we're not talking Oscars here but Miss Monroe certainly gives a credible performance as a psychotic babysitter. The action takes place over the course of one evening in the single setting of a New York hotel where Marilyn is babysitting the daughter of Jim Backus and Lurene Tuttle. She attracts the attention of pilot Richard Widmark who is in the throes of a breakup with girlfriend Anne Bancroft who works as a singer in the hotel but it's not too long before Marilyn's behaviour starts to worry Richard.

"Don't Bother to Knock" may not be much of a movie but it has built up something of a cult reputation mainly due to to Monroe's performance and as a thriller it does deliver the goods like a decent episode of 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour' and Widmark is excellent as usual. There's also a fine performance from Elisha Cook Jr. as Monroe's uncle who also happens to be the hotel's elevator operator. It's certainly no classic but it does what it says on the tin.