Monkey Business

Starring: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Hugh Marlowe
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy
1952

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A chemist (Cary Grant) accidentally discovers a cure for aging but struggles with the unforeseen side effects.

Review:

Tim: Monkey Business is a fairly good screwball comedy from Howard Hawks. The movie is pretty funny, entertaining, and is a film worth checking out. While it will never be considered a true classic, it's an enjoyable enough film.

The film deals with a concoction that promises to reverse the aging process. This "Fountain of Youth" formula would obviously be worth an unbelievable amount of money. The problem is that while it cures the damage of aging, it also makes you revert to a younger state mentally. This is where most of the zany comedy elements come from. For example, Cary Grant is a very serious, absentminded chemist with a laser focus on finding the right formula. When he takes the concoction, he suddenly becomes a lustful, carefree, risk-taker. It's genuinely fun to see the range required for this role. Grant does a very good job as this nerdy chemist, so it's great fun to see him darting in and out of traffic, diving off diving boards and flirting with Marilyn Monroe. The contrast of the characters makes up a lot of the comedy. The same thing happens when his very proper, straight-faced wife, played by Ginger Rogers, takes the concoction. Suddenly, she's an immature, emotional, carefree girl with crazy mood swings. The juxtaposition of these two elements to the same character is quite funny to see on screen. Rogers, like Grant, should be applauded for being so believable in both aspects of this character. I loved seeing her as the prim and proper wife, and it was great fun seeing her running around without a care in the world and then suddenly becoming overly emotional for no reason at all. That's really the heart of the film.

I also liked the addition of Marilyn Monroe. I'm not a huge Monroe fan, but she did good work here. Her role was to be the desirous secretary, so it's not like she had a super glamorous part. Her scenes with Cary Grant were pretty incredible and highlights of the film, so it's a shame she didn't get more to do. After that one sequence, she's mostly just standing off to the side of the main action. The rest of the cast was fine.

The movie also features some great animal work. The various chimpanzee scenes were quite interesting to watch. I loved Grant's involvement with the chimpanzees, whether that was carrying one or holding its hand. That added a different element to the film that was fun to see.

One of the biggest issues with the film is that the central premise just isn't very believable. I still don't understand how the formula was supposed to work and why it's effects only lasted a certain period of time. The science aspect was truly lacking, which made the whole film feel a bit silly. The movie hits its high point with Grant and Monroe cavorting about town, and it never really reaches that high throughout the rest of the film. There are humorous parts throughout the movie, but this comedy isn't especially funny.

While there is enough here in Monkey Business for the film to be considered a success, I can't say it approaches anything like true greatness. This is a good comedy, but it doesn't have a great deal of staying power. Everyone involved has made far better films than this one. Yes, in the end, I was entertained and consider this a solid film, but it really isn't anything too special.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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