Monkey Business (1952)

★ 6.7 1h 37m IMDb

Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.

Monkey Business

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Cast

Cary Grant
Cary Grant as Barnaby Fulton Died 1986 · Horfield, Bristol, England, UK Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986) was a British-American actor, celebrated for his debonair charm, impeccable comic timing, and sophisticated screen presence...
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers as Edwina Fulton Died 1995 · Independence, Missouri, USA Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the twentieth century. During h...
Charles Coburn
Charles Coburn as Oliver Oxley Died 1961 · Macon, Georgia, USA Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American film and theatre actor. Best known for his work in comedies, Coburn received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1...
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe as Lois Laurel Died 1962 · Los Angeles, California, USA Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex sym...
Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe as Hank Entwhistle Died 1982 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Hugh Marlowe (January 30, 1911 – May 2, 1982) was an American film, television, stage and radio actor. Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career i...
Henri Letondal
Henri Letondal as Jerome Kitzel Died 1955 · Montreal, Quebec, Canada Henri Letondal was a French-Canadian music critic, administrator, cellist, playwright and actor. He was a man of wide interests and wrote many sketches and revues, including, on occasion, the music....

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 7/10 Jul 14, 2024
Cary Grant is the professor "Fulton" working for "Oxley" (Charles Coburn) on a project to find some way of turning back time and reversing the ageing process. They are experimenting with various formulae on a selection of rather agile chimps, and it's actually one of them who manages to co come up with a solution that when, inadvertently, added to the water in the cooler manages to turn the academic into a small child. He also feels a bit like a new man, too! This wears off after a short while, so he gets his wife "Edwina" (Ginger Rogers) to sit in on his next experiment - only this time he takes an even stronger dose. Except, he thinks it's his prescribed doses that are causing his youthfulness, whereas we know it's the water in the communal bottle - and that isn't anywhere near as restricted as his medication. Add to the mix, an on-form Marilyn Monroe and loads of daft baby talk and we are left with an enjoyable, if maybe just a little too repetitive, look at the child in all of us. There's a paint fight, some rubber band pranking and maybe neither Grant nor Monroe should ever have got into the car mid-way through. Coburn was always a master at the understated contribution, and here he is a perfect foil for the silliness of the plot as the story gathers pace and heads into the realms of plain screwball. Grant had comedy timing in spades, and with Rogers and Monroe showing they, too, were never far off the pace this is good fun to watch.

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