Roy Ward Baker (Roy Horace Baker); Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'Don't Bother to Knock'

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Roy Ward Baker (Roy Horace Baker); Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'Don't Bother to Knock'

by Unknown photographer
modern publicity photograph, 1952
Given by Nicholas Baker, 2012
Photographs Collection
NPG x137339

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British director Roy Ward Baker, made his American debut directing Monroe on her first starring role in this thriller, based on the book Mischief (1951) by Charlotte Armstrong. Co-starring with Richard Widmark, Monroe played Nell Forbes, an emotionally disturbed babysitter. Baker recalled, 'There seems to have been a continual craving for reassurance which I tried my damnedest to supply...Certainly she had one over-riding ambition beside which nothing else mattered. That was to be a great big international star.' Despite mostly unfavourable reviews, the film helped to launch Monroe's career as a serious actress.

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  • Place made and portrayed: United States (20th Century Fox Studios, California)

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Events of 1952back to top

Current affairs

King George VI is found dead in his bed in Sandringham; he had been suffering from lung cancer. His daughter Elizabeth, who was in Kenya at the time, became Queen, the only monarch not to know the precise moment of her accession as her father was alone when he died. Elizabeth was crowned the following year.

Art and science

Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot is performed for the first time in Paris. The play belongs to the Theatre of the Absurd style, which influenced playwrights such as Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard.
Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens in London. It is still going.

International

Mau Mau rebels in Kenya rise up against the British colonial administration. The rebellion was sparked by the growing poverty of the native farmers under the rule of white settlers and called for Kenyan independence. The violence of the rebels, who often murdered settlers and loyalists, was met by the indiscriminate suppression by the British Military, who executed hundreds of suspects.

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