"Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse."

As mentioned previously, Humphrey Bogart was a huge star who could dictate what roles he wanted to play and who directed his pictures. This was a rarity in the 1940s. With the coming of the 50s, the old Hollywood studio system began to fall apart. Independent production companies were sprouting up as Congress began to investigate the monopoly in the movie industry. A select few stars created their own production companies during this period. Humphrey Bogart was one of them. His company, Santana Productions, produced four movies before being ruled a failure commercially. Santana was taken from Bogie’s yacht, not the guitar player.

The idea behind Santana was to have Bogie take a good story and include talented young actors and directors in the making of the movie. He would star to add box office weight and provide guidance to the younger people. The first movie produced by Santana was Knock on Any Door (1949).

Bogie plays a defense lawyer who has the tough task of proving career criminal Nick Romano, played by John Derek. Romano has come from the slums, just as Bogie’s character, Andrew Morton, has. Romano’s father died while in prison, Morton had been hired to defend Romano’s father, but failed to get him off. The Romano family blamed Morton for the father’s death. Morton felt terrible for what happened, but it wasn’t good enough for Nick. Nick quickly joined the wrong crowd and we see how Morton tried to step in each time to help Nick out. It didn’t work and now Nick is on trial for his life. He has been accused of shooting a police officer.

This is all standard film-noir, courtroom stuff. What makes this different is the fact that Bogie is playing the lawyer, not the criminal. When Bogie was Derek’s age he probably would have been Romano’s character, while Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney would be Morton. It just shows the growth of Bogie’s career in a decade.

As with most Hollywood movies that are not outstanding, this one suffers from what might have been. Originally, Marlon Brando was slated to play the role of Nick Romano. John Derek gives a capable performance, but he is no Brando. It would have been one of those rare movies in which you could see two greats with opposite styles of acting come together on-screen. Brando was famous for The Method technique, while Bogie was a naturalistic actor.

Anyway, had the Brando and Bogie tandem worked, the movie would have been produced by Mark Hellinger, not Santana. Hellinger had the rights to the book and had both Brando and Bogie on board. He unfortunately passed away before the movie could be made. Santana acquired the rights and made the movie with John Derek, since Brando’s man Hellinger was no longer involved in the project.

Nicholas Ray was brought on to direct. This was one of his first films, yet he seems completely comfortable in the film noir genre. He would go on to direct James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

Overall, Knock on Any Door is a quality picture. It is perfect for the film noir fans. But all the attention paid to the Romano character just doesn’t seem worth it when he isn’t played by Marlon Brando.