JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

vincentlynch-moonoi Cary Grant gets my vote as the best American actor of all time. And, the only real reason to watch this film is to see Cary Grant be silly (and nobody can be quite so silly as Cary Grant on those rare occasions when he does that). But this film...sorry, I think it ranks among the worst Cary Grant films.The first problem is Marilyn Monroe. At least she is accurately typecast in this film as a dumb blonde with no talent other than her looks. In fact, the lead chimp gives a more credible performance and is more entertaining.The second problem is that even Cary Grant (and Ginger Rogers) acting childish gets tired after a while...and when it does get tiring, there's little of substance left.SPOILER ALERT: The third problem is the plot. It's pretty thin: scientist may have discovered a youth potion...although it turns out the chimp invented the formula.I should have really liked this film. It has my favorite actor (Grant), and a female lead that I have come to like (Rogers), and one of my very favorite supporting actors (Charles Coburn). But it's a great disappointment from beginning (the director, off screen, telling Cary Grant that it's not time to come on the set yet) to the end.Well, nobody perfect. Not Cary Grant. And not the great director Howard Hawks. Sorry Cary, you get a rare "5" on this one.

elvircorhodzic MONKEY BUSINESS is hilariously crazy and fast comedy that is not too fun. Tasteless joke or rather tasteless concoction. The scientist is trying to find the elixir of youth, where one of his experimental chimpanzee accidentally smiling right formula. The story shows how a scientist, his wife, colleagues and acquaintances are exposed to the substance and starting to behave like immature adolescents.This film lacks a better and more intelligent plot, even for a little stupid story. The story is fast and predictable. With the lack of a "healthy humor" it is not functioning as it should.The cast is verified good. Cary Grant as Dr. Barnaby Fulton was again good, but I think he's grown this kind of comedy. Therefore, it is my impression, quite tepid. Ginger Rogers as Edwina Fulton She simply did not avail Grant energy. She simply did not avail Grant energy. Of course there are moments in the film with her "antics", but still remained in the corner. Marilyn Monroe as Lois Laurel is simply spiced up this movie and,to her chagrin, overshadowed the lead actress and acting much more natural compared to the other. If I add a nice smile, silly naiveté, breast, snappy hips, cheeks and bare legs, I get a picture of what actually constitutes Miss Monroe. I will always argue that Marylin is good actress. Unfortunately, she has built a completely different image.Mr. Howard, 1938. year has succeeded in his intention. 1952. year was not even close.

vert001 It's a matter of opinion, but you could say that Howard Hawks closed out the classic Screwball Comedy period with MONKEY BUSINESS the way that Orson Welles closed out the Film Noir movement with TOUCH OF EVIL. For Cary Grant, his research chemist in MONKEY BUSINESS is practically a continuation of his archaeologist in Hawks's earlier BRINGING UP BABY. There are also animals playing important roles in the plots of these films, but otherwise the movies are very different. MONKEY BUSINESS is something of a one joke fantasy (a chimp concocts a fountain of youth mixture), but this one joke is played out as an elaborate and building 'theme and variations' which is often inspired even if it does go on a bit too long. The film advances steadily, if that's not a contradiction, into ever crazier territory, beginning with an underplayed deadpan scene between absentminded scientist Grant and his patiently understanding wife Rogers and progressing into the crosscut surrealism of Grant's 'scalping' of his rival while leading a band of child 'Indians' while Rogers is mistaking an infant for her husband! It's not to everyone's taste, but catch it in the right mood and this is downright hilarious.If Cary Grant wasn't the finest light comedian that film has ever produced, he was extremely close. He plays confused like no one else, and MONKEY BUSINESS is inconceivable without him. Ginger Rogers also was an expert hand at verbal wit as well as slapstick, and an old hand at comically playing younger than her actual age. She may have gone over-the-top in places, but she also provided many funny moments. Marilyn Monroe was expert at playing dumb blondes and thus is perfectly cast, and Charles Coburn is always a welcome face in a movie.MONKEY BUSINESS was something of a disappointment at the box office, though not the utter disaster that BRINGING UP BABY had been, and perhaps for this reason Howard Hawks always expressed dissatisfaction with it. Never one to take the blame for inadequacies, he seems to have singled out Ginger Rogers as his 'whipping girl' for this one. Hawks had wanted the younger Ava Gardner to play Cary Grant's wife and Grant had vetoed it, not wanting to have love scenes with an actress young enough to be his daughter (a common occurrence in movies of the fifties, including Grant's movies). Casting the 41-year-old Rogers was Grant's suggestion, and though Hawks acquiesced, multiple sources tell us that he treated her coldly during the shoot. His claim that she dictated disastrous changes in the script is doubtful to say the least as Ginger Rogers in 1952 had no power to dictate anything to either Howard Hawks or to any film studio. In my opinion, Hawks was lucky to have her.MONKEY BUSINESS isn't the best movie that any of its principals were involved with, but it remains entertaining 64 years after it was made. A fitting end for the great Screwball Era.

TxMike I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. I happen to be a Chemist and that didn't help, because the Chemistry displayed here was very far from what might happen in a real Chemistry research lab. Anyway, to the story. As the movie starts and his wife is trying to get him out of the house, he is acting like he might be mentally challenged, but he is acting the part of an absent-minded scientist, deep in thought. Cary Grant is intelligent and inventive Chemist Dr. Barnaby Fulton. He is working on what could be the invention of the ages, a formula that would arrest aging, and perhaps even reverse it.The title has two meanings. Barnaby's lab is using chimpanzees, which they often referred to as "the monkeys", it was part of their research business. But the title also refers to the human "monkey business" that the characters seem to get into, over and over.Ginger Rogers is just great as the wife, Mrs. Edwina Fulton, and always very understanding and forgiving of Barnaby's foibles. Marilyn Monroe is also in it, as a typist who can't type, but her character introduces some additional high jinks. SPOILERS: Make no mistake, this is a slapstick comedy. Not only is Barnaby having trouble perfecting his formula, one day a chimp lets himself out of the cage, and proceeds to randomly pick up chemicals on the lab bench and mix them. The chemical mix ends up in the water cooler, and turns out to have the effect Barnaby was searching for. But with no witnesses and no idea what had happened, the chimp became an unwitting inventor of a technology that no one could duplicate. All the better for humanity, I suppose!