Monkey Business (1952) – 3/5

No bitter aftertaste here at all

Okay, here we have the film „Monkey Business“ from the year 1952, which means that this one is already over 70 years old now in 2023 and which also means that not many of the cast members are alive anymore today. However, on one occasion during the film, already relatively close to the end, there is a scene in which you see the male protagonist play with a group of fairly young children and from those you will find some that are still with us now I suppose. Must be special for them to say they shared a scene with Cary Grant in a film that also starred Marilyn Monroe, even if they did not have a scene with her if I remember correctly. But before I dig deeper into the cast list here, let’s look at some of the basics first. The director here is Howard Hawks (not Hughes) and he was in his mid50s when he was in charge of this film and already an Oscar nominee. It stayed the only Oscar nomination for him, but he received a Honorary Oscar much later. It is also not the only film in which he worked with Monroe, but maybe the lesser known. She is also just a supporting player here anyway. There are three writers credited here, interesting combination. Hawks is not one of them. For Ben Hecht, this film is already from the later years of his career and his recognition from the Academy Awards in the first half of the 21st century is really spectacular. You cannot say the same about the younger, but not too young anymore either Charles Lederer, but he had still worked on a handful films that are surely remembered today and finally I. A. L. Diamond does not only have an interesting name, but is also the youngest from the trio as he was only slightly over 30, but still far from a rookie. His biggest success then came in the 1960s when he worked together with Mr. Billy Wilder on a handful projects. Still, despite this trio’s success, don’t worry too if you have not heard of them before or don’t remember having heard of them. Neither have I.

It would be more unforgivable if the same was true with the cast as well. This is almost impossible. Cary Grant, who for me is easy to mistake for Gregory Peck somehow had already been nominated for two Oscars and was among Hollywood’s big leading men at that point. Ginger Rogers, who plays the female lead, was nominated for an Oscar a decade earlier during the days of World War II and she won. Charles Coburn is maybe the oldest cast member here as he was way over 70 already and his big successes happened in the 1940s too where he was nominated for three Oscars and on one occasion he won and he was one the defining supporting actors in Hollywood, especially when it comes to performers that are not super young anymore. So he started acting in the 1930s and it took one decade until he became a star, then another decade until this film here and then one more decade until his life ended. He had a pretty likable presence though and I am surely curious to see more form him at some point, even if he only played a supporting character who did not have the greatest deal of screen time in this one. Story of his life maybe. Anyway, he did awesome with what he was given and today I shall give him the recognition for it. I honestly really hoped he would drink this contaminated liquid there too at some point to see him, an old man, act like a 20-year-old again. It was kinda funny towards the end when he did and chased around Monroe’s character there, but it was also too short for me I would say. I would have loved to see more from him in this state. The film ended almost immediately afterwards.

There are many other cast members with impressive bodies of work and long experience in the industry, but I cannot talk about all of them. Just look for yourself if you want to know. One must not be forgotten though: Marilyn. I do not have as much to say about her here as I do for other projects that were/are part of the retrospective currently going on at the movie theater, but oh well. She is just a supporting player here and honestly not treated too nicely by the other characters. Her boss says something like how she should find somebody to type something for him (and thus for her too) because she is pretty useless as a secretary apparently. She does not understand the difference between punctuation and then in the end she thinks that two men touched her butt when they didn’t, but instead she is bullied by the female protagonist in here. Not exactly a thankful role, perhaps one of the most disrespectful towards her instead. But oh well, I still liked seeing her and after all nobody forced her to accept the part. This film is really all about the comedy. It becomes a riot relatively quickly when Grant’s character drinks the potion early on, but gets even better when Rogers also drinks it, even if it came out of nowhere, but then again it is fully true that it did not feel too realistic that Grant’s character would really step in himself to be a vital part of this experiment and study. No matter which meaningful quote he uses as an explanation, it just did not make any sense. The scenes with the monkey are great too of course, but it did feel a bit strange how easily the main character can calm the animal down there in one scene. I guess this was supposed to emphasize his alpha male (scientist) background and that he has everything under control all the time. Well, unless he is under the influence.

Towards the end, the two protagonists are once again under the influence and there at the same time, which causes even bigger mayhem. The moment when the woman writes something on the blackboard and the man is not too happy about it, but reacts like a teenage boy was hilarious. I also liked the moments in which Grant’s character in a childish fashion reacts to hearing the name of his wife’s suitor. Maybe my favorite comedic moment from him and he does not go as much over the top as Rogers does here and there, but the writing makes it still worth it I suppose. The scene with the Indians was quite funny there towards the end. Admittedly, the moment with the baby showing up there, did not make me laugh as much as some other people in the room, but that is alright. Everybody will find other stuff funny I guess. I was still impressed by how full the theater really was. I mean it was not a huge room, but there weren’t too many empty seats and this is quite something for such an old movie. Should further encourage people to keep showing such movies I hope. It has been a trend for some time now and it has turned into a success for sure and that is why I would call it an institution almost, at least at the movie theater where I saw this film. The one thing I do not like too much here is the title. I mean it is a little play on words and that is alright, but it feels too general or me, especially if we take into account that the more accurate term here for the animal would be „ape“ and not „monkey“. That animal was a scene stealer for sure, but just not in a way where I would say naming the film after it feels justified and I love animals, so me making such a statement means something I suppose.

If we return to the humans here, I think that Rogers was the MVP. I liked her reaction to the lipstick on her man’s face too and what she said about Monroe’s character’s infant side. Plus she even showed us her musical talent in the end and she was just the best and funniest from the cast. And it is not even close, Grant’s odd introduction wasn’t on the same level for example, so it is nice to see her score at least one bit of awards recognition for her performance in these slightly over 1.5 hours. I am surely surprised that there is almost no awards recognition for this movie, but oh well. I don’t think this makes it a worse watch. On the contrary, awards attention or not, this film is a riot at times, especially towards the end when the two protagonists are back to normal, but almost everybody else goes crazy then. And if these escalations do not make you smile really, then maybe the dialogue writing will do the part. I will end this review by mentioning another funny comment from Monroe’s character, who by the way is named Laurel and that is quite fitting given the awards body with the same name that also honored Monroe here and there. Before the comment she is told something by her boss, given a task and she does not understand that the two parts of it belong together, so she asks in a very confused manner which she should do first. Oh my. Cannot say I didn’t laugh there. No matter if the character was not helping her reputation, she sure made these moments work. And it’s not only those moments that work, but the entire film does. That’s why I give it a thumbs-up and this was never in doubt at all. It’s a good movie that is closer to greatness than to being forgettable I would even say. The scientific aspect you can ignore. These moments like the bright idea that comes to his mind are complete nonsense. Other than that, just as a comedy, the film is very bold for its time. That’s why you need to go and see it. It just does not have to be at a movie theater.