- Monkey Business (1952 film)
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Monkey Business 
Promotional movie poster for the filmDirected by Howard Hawks Produced by Sol C. Siegel Written by Ben Hecht
Charles Lederer
I.A.L. DiamondStarring Cary Grant
Ginger Rogers
Marilyn Monroe
Charles Coburn
Hugh MarloweMusic by Leigh Harline Cinematography Milton R. Krasner Editing by William B. Murphy Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date(s) September 5, 1952 Running time 97 minutes Country United States Language English Monkey Business (1952) is a screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Hugh Marlowe. To avoid confusion with the famous Marx Brothers movie of the same name, this film is sometimes referred to as Howard Hawks' Monkey Business.
Contents
Plot
Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, and Marilyn Monroe in Monkey Business
Dr. Barnaby Fulton (Grant), a research chemist working on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company, is trying to develop an elixir of youth, urged on by his commercially-minded boss Oliver Oxley (Coburn). One of Dr. Fulton's chimpanzees, Esther, gets loose in the laboratory and pours some chemicals into the water cooler — chemicals that just happen to have the rejuvenating effect for which Fulton is searching.
Unaware of the monkey's antics, Fulton tests his latest experimental concoction on himself, and washes it down with water from the cooler. Naturally, he soon begins to act just like a 20-year-old, and spends the day out on the town with his boss's secretary Lois Laurel (Monroe). When Fulton's wife Edwina (Rogers) learns that the elixir "works," she drinks some, again washing it down with water, and turns into a prank-pulling schoolgirl.
Things get out of hand when her newly quick temper induces Edwina to make an impetuous phone call to her old flame Hank Entwhistle (Marlowe), who, knowing nothing of the elixir, believes that Edwina is truly unhappy in her marriage and wants a divorce.
Meanwhile, more and more people at the laboratory are drinking the water and reverting to a second childhood, with predictably hilarious results. In the end, of course, everything works out, with help from the elixir itself.
Production
Monkey Business is reminiscent of Bringing Up Baby (1938), which also starred Cary Grant and was directed by Howard Hawks, but had a leopard instead of a chimpanzee. The denouement, involving a chemical that causes a board of directors to act like schoolchildren, is shared by Lover Come Back (1961), a Doris Day–Rock Hudson vehicle, although in that film the chemical — in pill form — simply causes everybody to get extremely drunk.
Hawks said he did not think the film's premise was believable, and as a result thought the film was not as funny as it could have been. Peter Bogdanovich has noted that the scenes with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe work especially well and laments that Monroe was not the leading lady instead of Ginger Rogers.
Cast
- Cary Grant ... Dr. Barnaby Fulton
- Ginger Rogers ... Edwina Fulton
- Marilyn Monroe ... Lois Laurel
- Charles Coburn ... Oliver Oxley
- Hugh Marlowe ... Hank Entwhistle
- Henri Letondal ... Dr. Jerome Kitzel
- Robert Cornthwaite ... Dr. Zoldeck
- Larry Keating ... G.J. Culverly
- Douglas Spencer ... Dr. Brunner
- Esther Dale ... Mrs. Rhinelander
- George Winslow ... Little Indian
External links
- Monkey Business (1952 film) at the Internet Movie Database
- Monkey Business (1952 film) at the TCM Movie Database
- Monkey Business (1952 film) at AllRovi
- Historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net
Filmography of Howard Hawks 1920s The Road to Glory • Fig Leaves • The Cradle Snatchers • Paid to Love • A Girl in Every Port • Fazil • The Air Circus • Trent's Last Case1930s The Dawn Patrol • The Criminal Code • Scarface • The Crowd Roars • Tiger Shark • Today We Live • The Prizefighter and the Lady • Viva Villa! • Twentieth Century • Barbary Coast • Ceiling Zero • Sutter's Gold • The Road to Glory • Come and Get It • Bringing Up Baby • Only Angels Have Wings1940s His Girl Friday • Sergeant York • Ball of Fire • Air Force • To Have and Have Not • The Big Sleep • The Outlaw (uncredited) • Red River • A Song Is Born • I Was a Male War Bride1950s The Thing from Another World (uncredited) • The Big Sky • Monkey Business • O. Henry's Full House • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes • Land of the Pharaohs • Rio Bravo1960s 1970s Categories:- 1952 films
- American films
- Black-and-white films
- English-language films
- Films directed by Howard Hawks
- 1950s comedy films
- American screwball comedy films
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