As Nell Forbes, a troubled babysitter in a New York hotel, Monroe gave an early dramatic performance of surprising darkness.
Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) is a tense thriller in which Nell, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, is left alone with a child. Monroe plays Nell’s instability and vulnerability with a restraint that hints at the dramatic actress she would become.
It is a small, unsettling film, and an important early step in Monroe’s career.
Image credit: Sam Shaw, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.