Monkey Business (1952)

A chemist finds his personal and professional life turned upside down when one of his chimpanzees finds the fountain of youth.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Ben Hecht (screenplay), Charles Lederer (screenplay)

Stars:

Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cary Grant	...	Dr. Barnaby Fulton
Ginger Rogers	...	Mrs. Edwina Fulton
Charles Coburn	...	Mr. Oliver Oxley
Marilyn Monroe	...	Miss Lois Laurel
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

Storyline

Barnaby Fulton is a research chemist working on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. While trying a sample dose on himself, he accidentally gets a dose of a mixture added to the water cooler and believes his potion is what is working. The mixture temporarily causes him to feel and act like a teenager, including correcting his vision. When his wife gets a dose that is even larger, she regresses even further into her childhood. When an old boyfriend meets her in this state, he believes that her never wanting to see him again means a divorce and a chance for him.

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Plot Keywords:

youth | chimpanzee | age regression | husband wife relationship | invention | 

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Taglines:

It's Some Fun!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 September 1952 (USA)

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' Monkey Business

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Edwina refers to Lois as "that pin up girl". Of course the character Lois is played by Marilyn Monroe, the most famous of pin up girls.

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Goofs

When Edwina jumps over the fence, her pant legs are rolled up. When she walks towards the front door, the pant legs are unfolded. After she walks into the house, they're rolled up again.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Howard Hawks, Man in Opening: Not yet, Cary.

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Crazy Credits

The off screen voice is Howard Hawks.

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Connections

Referenced in Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (1987)

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Soundtracks

The Whiffenpoof Song
(uncredited)
Music by Tod B. Galloway
Lyrics by George S. Pomeroy and Meade Minnigerode
Sung by Cary Grant
Also sung by Ginger Rogers
Also sung by Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn and the Executive Board

User Reviews

The Fountain Of Youth In Your Water-cooler

Monkey Business Cary Grant's second film with Ginger Rogers and his fourth and final film for director Howard Hawks has him reaching back into some of the lunacy of his previous work like Arsenic and Old Lace. Not since that madcap piece was Grant ever so frantic on the screen.

Ginger Rogers doesn't yield one inch of screen ground to him in that department though. In The Major and The Minor she faked being a teenage girl very convincingly and in this film she and Cary go back even farther in their return to adolescence.

Cary is a research scientist who is working on that eternal quest for the fountain of youth. A chimpanzee gets loose from her cage and mixes some chemicals and dumps the result in the water-cooler. Everyone thinks it's what Cary's concocted and the company bigwigs led by Charles Coburn and Larry Keating try to get it from him, but in his adolescent state it's no avail.

Monkey Business does meander over into just plain outright silliness, but with Cary and Ginger you don't really mind. I do so love the way Cary with a gang of kids he's playing Indians with leave poor Hugh Marlowe tied to a tree ready for a scalping because the wolfish Marlowe's been making moves on Ginger.

Second to that is Charles Coburn and Ginger Rogers trying to talk to an infant who they think Cary has morphed into. Coburn may have been one of the screen's greatest actors, he'd have to have been to hold his own with that baby. Note the dignified expression on his face never leaves.

Of course Monkey Business is also known for having one of Marilyn Monroe's early screen roles in it on her way up. She's Coburn's secretary and note the expression on Coburn's face as she is showing Grant the result of his work on a no run stocking.

Monkey Business is second tier stuff for Grant, Rogers, and Hawks, but fans of all three will like it and quite a few more than those people.