Review of Monkey Business (1952) by Brian R — 21 Jan 2011

"Miss Laurel was just showing me her acetates.".

Cary Grant plays a scientist set to work on finding an elixir of youth but his chimp Esther beats him to it and puts it in the drinking water. Hysterical comedy with an effervescent cast. Cary Grant is at his unhinged best and Charles Coburn plays his old fool of a boss perfectly but the two ladies are simply magnificent - Ginger Rogers is a revelation, displaying brilliant comic timing and Marilyn Monroe provides the funniest moments in the whole film, and of course they're both very beautiful. There truly was no-one better at making this sort of comedy than director Howard Hawks - he understood that this sort of nonsense needs to be played out by well-drawn characters who, in spite of the ludicrous situations they find themselves in, are always strangely believable. This Monkey Business is even better than the Marx Brothers film of the same name, and as far as I am concerned there is no higher praise.