Since you mention Marilyn Monroe's final scene in DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, I'm re-posting something I posted earlier in tis this thread:laffite wrote: ↑January 8th, 2023, 1:46 pm
I have seen this twice before and I didn't realize that Nell was so off the deep end. But that look we got when she was looking in the mirror, preening with jewelry A glimpse of the real Marilyn? I wonder how many takes it took to accomplish that final scene. Marilyn was fantastic there. That depleted look on her face, the body language, the turning away from (Anne), the way she said "...somebody entirely else." the way she surrendered the razor, even the elegant way she took the policeman's hand to be led away.>weep<
/
Marilyn Monroe's performance in this movie is amazingly subtle. Her acting talent and instincts were not recognized by the movie industry during her lifetime.
According to Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Monroe disagreed with director Roy Baker and her drama coach Natasha Lytess on how to play the final scene in DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK and ignored their advice.
Here's what Anne Bancroft said about Marilyn Monroe's work in that scene:
"The talent inside that girl was unquestionable. She did it her way and this got right inside me, actually floored me emotionally.
It was a remarkable experience! Because it was one of those very rare times in Hollywood when I felt the give and take that can only happen when you are working with good actors . . . There was just this scene of one woman seeing another who was helpless and in pain. It was so real, I responded. I really reacted to her. She moved me so that tears came into my eyes. Believe me, such moments happened rarely, if ever again, in the early things I was doing out there.”
By 1957, Anne Bancroft became dissatisfied with the movie industry and returned to New York to study acting and focus on work in the theater. She didn't return to movies until 1962 when she appeared in THE MIRACLE WORKER, reprising the role she had played on Broadway.
Top