Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

This month, the Criterion Channel is featuring a collection of films by Marilyn Monroe. I've seen quite a few of her films, so was pleasantly surprised to discover a film I'd not seen before, Don't Bother to Knock, which also has Anne Bancroft providing some lovely lounge music and Richard Widmark looking for love in all the wrong places. 

"The way you treat people. The way you think about them. All you can focus on is the cold outside of things, the simple facts. Not any causes of why's or wherefores. Oh, you're sweet. And you're fun. And you're hard. And you lack something that I ask for in a man." 

365 Days: #11 Hollywood Story (1951)

I am continuing my adventure with movies in the movies and am revisiting Hollywood in the past again. This is a William Castle film inspired by the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922.

#11 Hollywood Story

"A deserted motion picture studio. A shot. And a corpse. The year, 1929."

Producer, Larry O'Brien has come to Hollywood to make a movie. When his old pal, agent Mitch Davis, sets him up in an old silent movie studio, he becomes intrigued by the unsolved murder of film director, Franklin Ferrara. Against all advice, he decides to make a movie about the director's demise, and winds up a target of a murder plot. 

This is an entertaining murder mystery that gives us a glimpse of Hollywood's past, with brief cameos from silent film stars. Great performances and interesting location shots. 

Pointing out Valentino.

 Francis X. Bushman 

Betty Blythe and William Farnum 

 William Farnum, Helen Gibson and Francis X. Bushman

Target practice.

Joel McCrea acts a scene with fictional Roland Paul.