Monkey Business (1952)

Masterful Movie

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers are hilarious in "Monkey Business," a 1952 comedy romp. And, romp it is, as Barnaby and Edwina Fulton go through life changes while testing his new chemical formula. The rest of the cast join in the fun, especially Charles Coburn as Oliver Oxley, Marilyn Monroe as Miss Laurel, and Hugh Marlowe as Hank Entwhistle.Barnaby is the chief chemist working for the Oxley Company. Oliver Oxley wants him to discover the fountain of youth, but Barnaby doesn't want his project to get carried away. He's looking more for something that cures and heals ailments. But things do get carried away when one of the lab's chimpanzee's gets out of the cage. Esther imitates what she sees the chemists doing, and comes up with a "miracle" potion. When she hears the custodian returning with a new water bottle, she dumps her mixture into the water cooler. Later, Dr. Fulton (Barnaby) takes a dose of his mixture to serve as his own human Guinea pig. To chase the bitter taste down, he drinks a cup of water from the cooler. He comments that it too tastes bitter. Within a short time, Barnaby begins to change – acting, thinking and moving like a teenager. He and everyone thereafter think that he has hit on the formula for youth. The antics that go along with this are very funny. The potion wears off after a short time. The next day he plans to test it further, only Edwina downs the stuff before him – and has a water chaser. The antics get much funnier. After a frantic night and Edwina's return to normal, they go to Barnaby's lab. She makes a pot of coffee using the water from the cooler. They down the pot of coffee and then, Oxley calls them to a board of directors meeting. Barnaby and Edwina show up dressed like juveniles and with a chimp in hand. The comedy antics now enter the riotously funny stage. Throughout all of this, a very crisp script of witty dialog adds to the humor. This film is superb all around. Ginger Rogers received a 1952 Golden Globe nomination as best actress in a comedy or musical. It was a tough year with many excellent films and nominations in the Academy Awards. And, comedies with Oscars had become a scarce item since the early 1940s. Among the most hilarious scenes are Barnaby's organizing some boys who are playing Indians. He puts paint on his face and becomes Red Eagle. He plots the arrival of Hank Entwhistle and the boys trick Hank into joining them. Once Hank is tied up, Barnaby emerges from the bushes and begins the war dance that is necessary before a scalping. One of the last scenes shows Hank with a Mohawk haircut. One wonders if it was real, or a prop put on his head. Barnaby and Edwina have a paint smearing scene, and several other crazy antics add to the fun. Amidst all the mayhem and humor – just under the surface, Barnaby and Edwina have an ongoing, tender romance. It's a hoot of a film that even the kids should enjoy for some of the antics and the chimpanzee scenes. There are many funny lines in this film. See the Quotes section under this IMDb movie Web page for more lines. Here are some of my favorite lines. Edwina, "Look in this front pocket. That's usually where you hide it." Barnaby, "Oh, yeah. But I don't hide it. I put it there so that I could find it. Here it is." Barnaby, "I've just got to find a way to make it more assimilable." Edwina, "Huh?" Barnaby, "Assimilable?" Edwina, "More easily assimilated." Barnaby, "Oh, yeah." Edwina, "When I dance with you, I want to dance with all of you. I don't want your brain to be somewhere else." Edwina, "You're not very often the absent-minded professor. But darling, when you are, you're a real zombie." Hank, "Now look here, double dome. What's the idea of doing something tonight you can do just as well tomorrow?" Barnaby, "I'll get you a drink. You'll feel better." Hank, "Why can't you be a genius before sundown and a human being afterwards?" Barnaby, "Because I never know in advance when I'm going to be a genius."Barnaby, answering the phone in his lab, "Hello! Department of Water and Power. Which one would you like to have cut off?" Barnaby, "Aren't you here early?" Miss Laurel, "Oh yes. Mr. Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation. So I'm careful to get here before nine."Barnaby, "Miss Laurel was just showing me her acetates."Mr. Oxley, "Miss Laurel, find someone to type this." Miss Laurel, "Oh, Mr. Oxley, can't I try again?" Mr. Oxley, "No, it's very important. Better find somebody to type it for you." Miss Laurel, "Yes, sir." Oxley and Barnaby watch Miss Laurel walk out of the room, and Oxley says, "Anybody can type."Edwina, "Well, I love you, you potato head."

I guess there's a fine line between screwball comedy and slapstick. This one came down a bit more on the slapstick side once it got going and left me somewhat unsatisfied, even with the caliber of players in the lead roles. Cary Grant was a veteran of these kinds of pictures, but for a better definition of 'screwball', you'd have to check him out in "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Gal Friday", both from a decade earlier.Something occurred to me as I watched this and I never mentioned it before, but there's always a first time. Have you ever noticed, no matter how big the star or their celebrity appeal, it all seems to go by the boards when they step into a 1950's era kitchen and the appliances make things feel so outdated. That's the first thing that hit me when the Fulton's (Grant and Ginger Rogers) entered their home for the first time. Not that it bothers me because that's just the way things were, but it's something of a shocker when you see it today considering all the modern gadgetry we have available now. Just an observation.Now Marilyn Monroe, it didn't help her real life persona to be cast in a role like this because she had to carry that dumb blonde personality around all throughout her short career. If she had gotten more roles like the her character Roslyn Taber in "The Misfits", well, who knows, her self esteem might have taken her on an entirely different course. As it is, we'll never know.So getting back to the story, we come to find out that at least in this case, the old fountain of youth is not all that it's cracked up to be, especially when monkeyshines are involved. Speaking of which, I wish the chimp who performed here was credited for the role, it had the best facial expressions of any I've ever seen, and that would include Cheeta from all those Tarzan flicks of old. You know, Cheeta lived to the ripe old age of seventy nine, so when Barnaby described 'Rudolph' as being eighty four, the writers wouldn't have been too far off the mark. But then again, they had 'Esther' on screen, so who would ever know?After all the hi-jinx, the story finally comes around to the message we probably all were waiting for, that is, the idea expressed in my summary line delivered by Barnaby Fulton. Another way of expressing it would have been the way Barnaby replied to Miss Laurel (Monroe) when she asked him if his motor was running - "Is yours?"

This is one of those films you could watch over and over. It never gets old.Just about all of Ginger Rogers comedy films are pretty close to this one in terms of laugh-ability. She found her niche after leaving the dancing films of the 30's. She and everyone else found out that she, along with Carole Lombarde, was a true wise cracking comedienne. You can see where Lucille Ball got some of her persona. She just shines in this one.It starts off with a chemist, played by Cary Grant, is on his way to a dance with his wife and he just goes off into space at the front door. He's a smart guy and his wife loves him dearly for it. He loses track of what he was suppose to do (going to a dance/party) but that's OK with his wife. She would rather be with him anyhow. He's working on a formula to make people feel young again and he can't concentrate on anything else.From this you'll get some seriously funny scenes of Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant not acting their age. A lab chimp gets out of it's cage and comes up with the formula they've been trying to figure out and dumps it into the lab water cooler. They mistakenly take the formula they make and it doesn't taste too good so they drink some water...from the cooler. It's chaos from her on in.Let's give Cary Grant some credit to. The end of the film where he plays Cowboys and Indians with a bunch of school-kids is just hysterical. For laughs, it easily matches anything on film from these days.Ms. Monroe is in this one also and she's a side note but she does the job fairly well. It's easy to see why everyone watched her for her looks and Ginger Rogers for her ability to entertain. Ginger Rogers was in a league of her own.Folks, it just doesn't get much funnier than this one. Grab your friends and plop yourself down on the couch and give this one a whirl. You'll see the same thing I saw...funny.

I love this film. I do prefer His Girl Friday, but this movie is wonderful. The production values are top notch, with lovely cinematography and costumes. The pace is snappy, and the story is wonderfully constructed with seldom a dull moment. Monkey Business is also brilliantly directed by Howard Hawks, the writing is superb and the acting is top notch. I have always loved Cary Grant, he was a very charming, urbane and likable actor, and he is sublime here. Ginger Rogers is also very good, it shows that she is just as good as acting as she is at dancing. It is Marilyn Monroe though who steals the show, very beautiful and sassy, she is delightful in Monkey Business. All in all, this movie is a delight and definitely worth the look. 10/10 Bethany Cox