Monkey Business ***** (1952, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe) – Classic Movie Review 2157

The brilliant 1952 screwball comedy Monkey Business stars Cary Grant as an absent-minded Professor developing an elixir of youth. Marilyn Monroe emerges gracefully from funny jokes at her expense – ’anyone can type’, ‘half child but not the visible half’.

Director Howard Hawks’s brilliant 1952 screwball comedy Monkey Business stars Cary Grant as the absent-minded research scientist/chemist Professor Barnaby Fulton who is trying to develop an elixir of youth while working for the Oxly chemical company.

Unbeknownst to Fulton, Esther, one of his lab chimpanzees, breaks loose in the laboratory, mixes a beaker of chemicals, pours the mix into the water cooler, and invents the youth formula. Fulton tests his latest experimental concoction on himself, washes it down with water from the cooler and begins to act like a teenager. The professor then finds both his personal and professional lives turned upside down, with his wife taking a large dose that sends her regressing into her childhood, and the elixir eventually causing the board of directors to act like school kids.

There’s huge polish and style in the performances from Grant and Ginger Rogers as his wife Edwina, who revert to childhood. And there’s great hilarity from Charles Coburn as his stuffy, old  commercially minded boss, Oliver Oxly, who is lucky enough to have Marilyn Monroe (playing Lois Laurel) as his secretary.

There are lots of funny, well-aimed, if sexist jokes at Marilyn’s expense – ’anyone can type’, ‘half child but not the visible half’’. But somehow she gracefully emerges from being the butt of the jokes with plenty of dignity intact. Her scenes with Grant are delicious and especially amusing but Rogers also shows her expert comedy skills. The cast is a perfect delight.

Also in the cast are Hugh Marlowe, Larry Keating, Henri Letondal, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, Esther Dale, George Winslow, Emmett Lynn, Joseph Mell, George Eldredge, Heinie Conklin, Kathleen Freeman, Forbes Murray, Harry Carey Jr, Dabbs Greer and Roger Moore (as the chauffeur). This was the last of 230 credits for Chicago-born character actor Roger Moore, who died on March 24 1999, aged 98.

The daft but supremely witty and inventive screenplay is by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and Billy Wilder collaborator I A L Diamond, based on a story by Harry Segall.

Monkey Business is a relative of Bringing Up Baby (1938), which also starred Grant and was also directed by Hawks, but featured a leopard instead of a chimpanzee. The voice telling Grant ‘Not yet, Cary’ (not to open the door yet) during the opening credits is that of Hawks, the only time his voice is heard in any one of his movies. Hawks, an over-severe critic of his own work, felt the film’s premise was unbelievable and, because of this, the film was less funny than it could have been.

The film is sometimes called Howard Hawks’s Monkey Business to avoid confusion with the unconnected 1931 Marx Brothers film Monkey Business.

The cast are Cary Grant as Dr Barnaby Fulton, Ginger Rogers as Edwina Fulton, Marilyn Monroe as Lois Laurel, Charles Coburn as Oliver Oxley, Hugh Marlowe as Hank Entwhistle, Henri Letondal as Dr. Jerome Kitzel, Robert Cornthwaite as Dr Zoldeck, Larry Keating as G.J. Culverly, Douglas Spencer as Dr Brunner, Esther Dale as Mrs. Rhinelander, George Winslow as Little Indian, Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. Brannigan, Harry Carey Jr as Reporter, Emmett Lynn, Joseph Mell, George Eldredge, Heinie Conklin, Forbes Murray, Dabbs Greer and character actor Roger Moore.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2157

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