Knock on Any Door

A year before the famous film noir In a Lonely Place (1950), director Nicholas Ray and Hollywood tough guy Humphrey Bogart met on the set of Knock on Any Door. Although this courtroom drama with social undertones does not match their more famous collaboration, it still has a lot to offer the audiences. It is one of the first Hollywood adaptations of a novel by a Black author, based on the debut novel of the same name by Willard Francis Motley. Bogart plays a lawyer who takes on the hopeless case of a troubled young man from the slums who is involved in a robbery in which he allegedly killed a police officer. The role was the first significant acting opportunity for John Derek, who briefly became a teen idol. The film was produced by Bogart’s company Santana (founded in 1948), named after his private yacht. (mh)