Product Details

• Actors: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Hugh Marlowe
• Directors: Howard Hawks
• Writers: Howard Hawks, Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Harry Segall, I.A.L. Diamond
• Producers: Sol C. Siegel
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302484448
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,287 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #83 in	Video > Comedy > Screwball Comedy
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Cary Grant plays an absent-minded scientist working on a youth serum with little success. One afternoon, one of his test monkeys gets loose and works up a formula of its own, which then gets dropped into their water cooler. Shortly, Grant is tooling around in a sports car with his boss's voluptuous secretary (Marilyn Monroe). When his wife (Ginger Rogers) investigates, she too gets a dose and drags Grant off for a second honeymoon of all-night dancing. Meanwhile, Grant's elderly boss (Charles Coburn) is eager to get his hands on the formula--only Grant's formula isn't having the proper effect. Monkey Business is probably most familiar to Marilyn Monroe cultists, but it's Grant and Rogers who have the central roles and make the most of them. Rogers's adolescent emotional meltdown at a hotel and Grant leading a gaggle of boys on a scalping raid are only two of the movie's many richly funny set pieces, all directed by the nimble hand of Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, Ball of Fire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). One of the last of the classic screwball comedies. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blame It On "Esther"......, January 2, 2004

By	L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (fountain valley, ca United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Monkey Business (DVD)

This review refers to the Diamond Collection DVD edition(20th Cent Fox) of "Monkey Business".....

So what do we have here? A laugh out loud screwball comedy from 1952, starring Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers, and Charles Coburn. It was directed by the legendary Howard Hawks,and has a screenplay by greats Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond...And there's more...20th Century Fox has restored this black and white comedy and has made a wonderful transfer to DVD, so we may enjoy all these immense talents more than 50 years later.

The film is a lot of fun, and the stars look like they had fun making it. And, you can blame all this fun on "Esther". Esther is a six month old chimp who mixes up a batch of youth serum and dumps it in the water cooler at the lab of the absent minded researcher Dr. Barnaby Fulton(Grant). When Fulton and wife Edwina(Rogers), get a powerful dose of this formula, it's anything goes, as they become youthfully exuberant and a bit on the mischievious side(okay, okay, more than a bit). The more they drink...the younger they act. Fulton's boss(Coburn)is trying desperatley to market this miracle and secretary Laurel(Monroe), adds to all this fun as only Marilyn can do with her mere presence.And yes...Ginger does a little hoofing as well!

A fabulous restoration makes it all the more enjoyable. The full screen picture(1.33:1/academy ratio) and black and white images are sharp and clear. There are a few instances when that rainbow thing is happening, you may notice it on Cary's suit or tie, but not often and it no way interferes with the enjoyment of this film. The audio gives you the choice of Stereo or Mono, and there are subtitles in English and Spanish.
You can also view a restoration comparasion and there's a still gallery with wonderful photos.

What we have here is a 5 star package deal for anyone who loves old Hollywood, for anyone who loves to laugh, and for anyone who is young...at heart!...enjoy....Laurie

more romantic comedy recommendations:
A Couch in New York
Some Like It Hot
His Private Secretary

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Anyone can type.", August 11, 2005

By	Allen Smalling "Constant Reader," (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Monkey Business (DVD)

Please don't think that MONKEY BUSINESS is a true Marilyn Monroe vehicle, no matter what the box suggests. Her total time in this feature-length movie is on the order of 15-20 minutes, but MM lights up the screen as a dim secretary who is careful to get to work by nine because her boss has asked her to improve her punctuation. (!) Classic line: after boss (played by Charles Coburn) sends Marilyn off in search of someone to type a letter, he steals a look at her "caboose" and remarks, "Anyone can type."

This is not to imply that the rest of the production lacked brilliance. MONKEY BUSINESS is a true screwball comedy of the pre-WWII type that accelerates and spins out of control in ways that the audience cannot anticipate, but will surely enjoy. Released in 1952 just before Monroe became a full-blown star and TV hijacked the mass audience, the film brims with talent and zesty roles. MONKEY BUSINESS reunites Howard Hawks as director and Cary Grant as male lead for the first time since 1938's delightful BRINGING UP BABY.

Cary plays a very middle-aged absent-minded professor who is really a bit of a stick--until he's accidentally dosed with a new Ponce de Leon rejuvenation serum and all youth breaks out. Pretty soon he's got his hair in a buzz cut and driving a new roadster so recklessly he scares even the pretty (and pretty daring) secretary, the aforementioned by Marilyn Monroe. Things get even wackier when wife Edwina (Ginger Rogers) accidentally ingests some of the serum, too.

Now, this excellent film has plenty of performances alongside Marilyn's: manic Cary, flabbergasted Ginger Rogers, the everlovin' monotone of Hugh Marlowe (he of a jillion WWII air-ace movies and the playwright in ALL ABOUT EVE) and as a special treat, George ("Foghorn") Winslow, the seven-year-old Baby Boomer who blatts out "What'sa matter? Don'cha like children?" just before he ties Marlowe to a tree!

Part of the joy of this movie is watching Grant and Rogers give some of their most uninhibited performances ever as the middle-aged couple who revert to youth--and even before. The timing, direction, and dialog are all impeccable, and of course we have MM into the bargain.

Worth keeping a weather eye out for as well are numerous other Fox black-and-white comedies from the late forties/early fifties, not least among them EVERYBODY DOES IT (1947), in which Celeste Holm plays a mediocre talent who's convinced she could have hit the big time with the right support; and A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1948), with an all-star cast, including Ann Sothern, Jeanne Crain and Linda Darnell as three of postwar suburbia's most "desperate housewives."

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Comedy Starring the Silver Screens Greatest Legends, June 5, 2000

By	Paul (New Jersey, The United States of America) - See all my reviews

This hilarious slapstick comedy stars Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and Marilyn Monroe, 3 of the Silvers Screen's greatest stars. Cary Grant, a doctor, develops a syrum that makes him younger. He tests it out and goes for a spin with his young, beautiful secretary, Marilyn Monroe! Later, his wife, Ginger Rogers tries it out, and finally, Grant and Rogers are like 5 year olds. Ginger is great when she goes into her "childlike temper tantrums" and in one scene, after the syrum has worn off on her, she finds a baby, and thinks it's her husband! This stuff is timeless--it was on the American Film Institute's 500 List of the greates comedies, and it is timeless, making it one of my favorite movies.