Customer Reviews

Knock on Any Door [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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Humphrey Bogart plays criminal lawyer Andrew Morton in a very mediocre drama "Knock on Any Door". Bogey who rose above meagre beginnings in the city slums is called upon to defend previous client, career criminal Nick Romano played by a baby faced John Derek. Derek who has committed and been convicted of a series of crimes is being held for the murder of a policeman during a robbery.

The format of the movie is basically a flashback detailing the life of Derek during his trial in the courtroom. What we see is a soapy and melodramatic treatise on the mechanism by which an innocent young boy is corrupted by the mean streets of an uncaring society. Director Nicholas Ray lays it on pretty thick using some hammy acting by Bogey and every cliche in the book to make his point. The trouble is we wind up not caring.

Unfortunately this well intentioned movie doesn't quite make it. This theme has been much more effectively been rendered in other more notable flicks such as Bogey inspired "Dead End". John Derek will never be confused with a talented actor judging by his performance in this movie.

I saw this years ago and was spellbound... Bogart and John Derek(Sinatra badly wanted the role but was thought too old)are at their best.... It really is in the same vein as Rebel without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, My Own Private Idaho.... films about young people-coming-of-age and the problems the grown ups/the system/society does to individuals that not quite follow the stream.... It is a must-see because of these ingredients and that is was one of first of its kind.

"Knock on Any Door" (Columbia 1949), a combination courtroom drama and delinquent youth social statement, was Nicholas Ray's directorial debut. Humphrey Bogart plays lawyer Andrew Morton, one time street tough turned idealistic lawyer. Bogart's independent production company made the film shortly after he broke away from Warner Brothers. Bogart's part was originally intended for Marlon Brando, but Brando withdrew after the death of producer Mark Hellinger.

On the verge of becoming a partner in his big-time law firm, Morton is yanked out of his ivory tower and into the past by the need to defend accused murderer Pretty Boy Romano (John Derek), who he attempted to help when Romano was a petty teenage criminal. This is told in flashbacks with Romano repeating his credo: "live fast, die young, and have a good looking corpse". Probably the first film use of what has become a very tired expression. Morton carries a lot of guilty baggage into the trial. He blames himself for the imprisonment of Romano's father, an event that plunged the family into poverty and led to Romano's life of crime. Through the years he had tried to help Romano who had married a nice girl and attempted to go straight. But setbacks at work returned Romano to crime. Then his pregnant wife's suicide unhinged him and he killed a cop.

The "Knock on Any Door" expression refers to Morton's plea for leniency during the trial, as he blames the conditions in the slums and the effects of poverty for Romano's actions. Stating that behind any door are young men whose lives will be wasted unless they receive guidance and are assisted in becoming productive citizens.

"Knock on Any Door" provides a nice example of the unpredictability inherit in the film making business. A look at screenplay and cast would lead you to expect the film's strengths to be the Bogart-Derek scenes and the courtroom drama, with the romantic background story (told in flashbacks) a glaring weakness.

But the trial scenes which take up a substantial part of the film suffer from the usual procedural inaccuracies and are not particularly effective dramatically. Bogart pretty much plays his Captain Queeg character ("The Caine Mutiny") and spends more time whining than defending. The Bogart-Derek scenes are nothing special and there is no chemistry between the two actors. The narrative actually contradicts the theme of outrage over social inequities. The simplistic conclusions about social justice ring hollow and any sympathetic feelings toward Romano seem misplaced.

The production design is great. When combined with the haunting black & white photography it makes for one of the best looking examples of the film noir genre.

What ultimately saves the film and actually makes it rather special is the romance between Romano and Emma (Allene Roberts). This unlikely character pairing (imagine James Dean's "Rebel" having a serious relationship with Melanie from "Gone With the Wind") somehow works as Roberts and Derek have a real chemistry together. And she introduces intangibles that are missing from the rest of the production. In addition, the relationship itself introduces a nice irony as it is the pressure to make Emma proud of him and to tangibly demonstrate his love that ultimately leads Romano back to crime.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Originally released in 1949, Knock on Any Door is, in many ways, the epitome of the liberal-minded social problem films of the late 40s and early 50s. The film opens with the murder of a policeman in New York City. Nick Romano (John Derek) is arrested for the crime. Nick is a troubled young man who has grown up in the slums and is fond of saying that his goal is to "Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse." Now on trial for his very life, Nick reaches out to lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart). Morton, in the past, unsuccessfully defended Nick's father in a similar criminal trial. At first, Morton wants nothing to do with Nick but eventually, Morton changes his mind, partially out of guilt over Nick's father and partially because Morton himself came from the same slums that produced Nick. Even as the district attorney (George Macready) goes for blood, Morton argues that Nick isn't a criminal but instead a victim of a society that left him with little choice but to become a criminal.

Knock Any Door is a well-intentioned but flawed film. Regardless of whether you agree with the film's thesis that crime is the result of environment as opposed to choice, it's hard to ignore that the film's script argues its point in such a heavy-handed fashion that the very real issues got lost in all of the melodrama. The district attorney (as played by George Macready) is such a villainous character that you can't help but expect to see him attempting to tie John Derek down on some railroad tracks. As well, the film never quite manages to overcome the staginess that is inherent in almost all courtroom melodramas and, as a result, the scenes of Derek on trial tend to drag.

That said, if you're a fan of Humphrey Bogart, this is an essential film. Bogart (along with Robert Lord) produced this film himself and, watching his performance here, it's obvious how important this movie and its subject matter were to him. Bogart gives one of his best "tough guy with a heart of gold" performances here. His final speech, where he argues that crime in the result of environment, is undeniably heavy-handed but Bogart delivers it with such conviction and passion that it's hard not to be moved by his argument.

The film is also essential if you're a fan of the director Nicholas Ray. Bogart selected Ray to direct this film on the basis of Ray's debut as a director "They Live by Night." Watching this film, it's obvious that Ray was still finding his footing as a director but the talent that would eventually give us films like Rebel Without A Cause and In a Lonely Place is also obvious. As stagey as the courtroom scenes are, Ray brings a real energy (as well as a film noir sense of shadowy menace) to the scenes of Derek growing up on the streets of New York. As well, this film deals with many issues that Ray would return to with Rebel Without A Cause.

Knock on Any Door is not a perfect film but, for fans of Humphrey Bogart and Nicholas Ray, it's a must-see.

"Knock on any Door" is a 1949 black and white crime drama starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by Nicholas Ray. It was based on the best-selling 1949 novel by Willard Morley.

Little need be said about Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957). In the 30s, Bogart played second fiddle to Warner's biggest stars James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, but in 1941 Bogart starred in "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" and from that point onward, Bogart became a big name star, eventually surpassing both of them in 1943 on the tail of his performance in "Casablanca". Bogart plays a successful lawyer who raised himself up from the slums, defending a young hoodlum.

John Derek (1926-98) plays "Pretty Boy" (in his film debut), a young hoodlum accused of murdering a cop. Derek appeared in more than 40 films between 1943 and 1966, none very memorable. He's best known for his choice of wives, who included Ursala Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek.

FWIW - Derek echoes the phrase `Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse" which became a classic.

George Macready (1899-1973) appears as the DA. He was an excellent character actor, appeared in nearly 100 films and was active on TV. He was often cast as an aristocratic villain because of his cultured accent, and the scar on his face was often used to this advantage. He had memorable roles in "Gilda" (1946), "Tora, Tora, Tora" (1970), and "Seven Days in May" (1964), but my personal favorite was his role as French General Mireau in "Paths of Glory" (1957).

Director Nicholas Ray (1911-79) is best known for "Rebel Without a Cause" (1956) for which he received an Oscar nomination (winner Delbert Mann for "Marty"). He also received a Cannes Film Festival nomination for "The Savage Innocents" (1960) and Venice Film Festival nominations for "Bitter Victory" (1957) and "Bigger than Life" (1956). My absolute favorite Ray film is the western "Johnny Guitar" (1954). Ray favored youth and rebels (Ben Cooper in "Johnny Guitar", James Dean in "Rebel without a Cause") so Derek's "Pretty Boy" is another of Ray's portraits. In fact, Derek looks very much like Sal Mineo, another of the rebels without a cause.

Most of the film takes place in court with Bogart providing flashbacks about his knowledge of Pretty Boy's life. Hence the film is a combination of crime drama and courtroom drama, and Ray does a good job capturing the essential elements for both genres.

FWIW - Along with "They Drive By Night" Ray came out with 4 films in his debut year.

Burnett Guffey (1905-83) turned in some first rate camera work. Guffey was nominated 6 times for an Oscar and won twice ("From Here to Eternity", "Bonnie and Clyde").

"Knock on any Door" was the first independent production of Bogart's company Santana (named after his boat), started in 1948. He made 5 films including "In a Lonely Place" (1950) and "Beat the Devil" (1954).

The film is strongly left wing and blames society for the actions of "Pretty Boy". Ray was a staunch liberal (as was Bogie) and his sentiments are echoed in the screenplay from Daniel Taradash ("Golden Boy", "From Here to Eternity", "Castle Keep") and John Monks ("The House on 92nd Street", "The People Against O'Hara").

One can also note that black actors appear in normal roles alongside white actors, an extremely unusual casting option for 1949 when they still had the tendency to stereotype roles for black actors (musician, servant, hoodlum).

Bosley Crowther in the NY Times called the film "a pretentious social melodrama" and bemoaned the fact that "the nature and aspect of the hoodlum are outrageously heroized". But Variety disagreed, calling it "an eloquent document on juvenile delinquency, its cause and effect."

The big Oscar winners in 1949 were "Hamlet" (Picture, Actor, Art Direction, Costume Design) and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor). The top box office hits were "Samson and Delilah", "Battleground", "Jolson Sings Again", "The Sands of Iwo Jima", and "I Was a Male Order Bride". Other notable films that year were "All the King's Men", "Champion", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", "Twelve O'Clock High" and "White Heat".

Bottom line - an OK B crime drama from the 40s.

Bogie (as a lawyer) defends John Derek (as the defendant) on a cop-killing charge. This movie is mainly for Bogie and/or court room drama fans (like Perry Mason, or Matlock), but Bogie DOES make a good "theatrical" lawyer. The story is not new, the "defense" is not new, the "twist" is not new (but nothing is really new in court room dramas anyway), but the acting is good, and thereby saves the film. Watchable.

This is by no stretch neither one of Bogart's best nor one of his worse films. In the late 1940s and 1950s, as Bogart began to break away from Warner Brothers and do more independent films, he began more and more to explore a greater variety of roles. In this one, he plays a lawyer who managed to break out of the rough and nasty neighborhood where he grew up, and a young tough who has been unable to break out and has gotten himself into a string of bad situations. The young thug is played by John Derek, who would go on to appear in a number of films (such as ALL THE KINGS MEN and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, in which he would play Joshua) before becoming a photographer and director an husband of a number of famed (and similar looking) beauties, including Ursala Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek). Given the utterly horrible movies he directed starring Bo Derek, it was quite a nice surprise to see what a nice job he does in this film. He was not merely a pretty face; he had some talent.

Bogart managed to excel in every movie he was ever in, with only a few exceptions, like THE OKLAHOMA KID, a Western in which he played a Mexican bandit, complete with utterly unconvincing accent. Apart from that and a couple of other 1930s roles, Bogart managed to shine even when the rest of the movie was vile.

The problem with KNOCK ON ANY DOOR is twofold. One is the highly artificial script, in which much of the film is told in flashback in what is supposed to be the opening remarks at a trial. It is unbalancing to have so much of the film told in flashback at a moment in a trial when such personal remarks would have been inappropriate. As a result, the trial ends up feeling not so much like a trial as a parody of a trial. The second problem is that the movie is a bit heavy handed in its social commentary. That society can have a pervasive and overwhelming influence on the ultimate destiny of a young person had been developed in the late 19th century by people like Jane Addams, and had become commonplace in the following decades. Many films of the 1930s focused on the importance of providing kids with more positive social influences, like DEAD END and BOY'S TOWN. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR tries to get a lot of mileage out of an idea that was hardly new. During the heavier of the social commentary moments, I kept thinking of a line from Monty Python, when the Church Police arrest a young kid who had murdered a parson. Someone points out in the arrest that society was to blame. "We'll be arresting him [i.e., society] too."

Nonetheless, this is an interesting and effective film, though somewhat marred by social sentiment and some serious structural problems in the script.

Its hard for me to put down a Bogart movie. Since he is considered one of the best actors of the last century. Which is true.
But this wasn't the right film for him.
This would've been the perfect frist film for him to direct rather than star in. That is if it wasn't so badly written.
The premise of the film is about the social conditions of inner-city youth. As timely a topic then as it is now.
However the movie as an essay on the subject failed. Both
technical and literally.
It came off too preachy and as I said before, Badly written.
But I give it 3 stars, because of the acting of both stars
Bogart and John Derrick.
I also recomend seeing the film because of Derrick.
This was his first film role. Most people only know him from
his later films. Such as The Ten Comandments, and the fact that
he was once married to the now forgotten actress Bo Derrick.
But back in the 40's he was a young and very hansome kid.
The Brad Pitt of his day. Still it a nice addition to any Bogart
film collection.

The dialogue and script come off as preachy, as pointed out in another review, but given the social issues it tackles and the emotion and guts Humphrey Bogart, John Derek and the character of the judge bring to this film, I believe it is equal in many ways to the strong social statements made by films of the 60s. I recommend this film as a look at a social conscience of 60 years ago that rings true today given American's uneven school system, inner city programs, etc.

It's hard to believe that a Nicholas Ray film starring Humphrey Bogart could have turned out this badly. The problem is the script, which combines poor plot structure with leaden social commentary. Throw in some of the most laughably unrealistic courtroom scenes imaginable and you've got a near-total disaster. The only thing keeping this movie out of the one-star category is the occasional flash of acting or directing talent that intermittently rises above the dreadful script.