Monkey Business (1952)

Directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Marlowe, Henri Letondal, Robert Cornthwaite.

Absent-minded chemist Grant, in trying to develop a “fountain of youth” elixir, reverts back to a state of reckless immaturity; before long, his wife (Rogers) gets dosed herself, and their childish antics cause no shortage of exasperating comic situations. Latter-era screwball befuddlements linked by energetic outbursts of silliness; never really picks up steam, but provides passable entertainment value. Grant’s talents as a first-rate farceur aren’t wasted, and Rogers gets a few opportunities to cut loose, but Monroe has little to do besides show off her gams; on the one hand, it’s the sort of picture that gets “stolen” by a chimp, but on the other hand, it is quite the chimp. Scattered scatterbrained script by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, and I. A. L. Diamond (with that kind of pedigree, how could it have fallen so far short of greatness?). No relation to the 1931 Marx Brothers gem of the same name.

64/100