Don't Bother to Knock

Don't Bother to Knock (1952) is Roy Ward Baker's black-and-white noir thriller, and you can watch it online on iFILM. At a Manhattan hotel, an elevator operator lines up an easy job for his niece Nell: mind a guest's young daughter while the parents are at a banquet downstairs.

Nell has no experience, but how hard can it be? Once the girl is asleep, she slips into the absent guest's gown and jewelry — and across the courtyard, recently dumped airline pilot Jed starts flirting through the window. The harder he pushes, the clearer it gets that the quiet babysitter is coming apart, and the child is in real danger.

Adapted from Charlotte Armstrong's novel, the film hands Marilyn Monroe one of her first straight dramatic parts — no comic sparkle, just a frightened, breakable woman. Richard Widmark plays the pilot, and a young Anne Bancroft makes her screen debut. Seventy-six taut minutes inside a single hotel. Stream Don't Bother to Knock online on iFILM.