MONKEY BUSINESS mixes 97 minutes of mirth from 1952 when director Howard Hawks and a great team of screenwriters put Cary Grant thru Hawks screwballing paces for the 5th time, having trained for the meet in Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday and I Was A Male War Bride. He’s joined by Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe and an incredibly well-trained (or just natively ingenious) chimpanzee.

Scientist (absent-minded variety) ‘Dr. Barnaby Fulton’ (Grant, 48) has been developing what he hopes will be a youth elixer, experimenting with chimpanzees. After taking a dose himself (not knowing Esther the monkey messed with the mixture) Barnaby finds his new old self transformed and acts out with abandon. Complications ensure when wife ‘Edwina’ (Rogers, 40) eventually follows suit. Among the fascinated observers are ‘Oliver Oxley’ (Coburn, 74), Fulton’s boss who sees the financial potential of the youth cocktail, and Oxley’s secretary ‘Lois Laurel’ (Monroe, 25) who knows she likes Barnaby but is aware of little else.

The script was brewed up by the formidable trio of Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond. For 3/4 of the way the idea gimmick plays well, then it gets pushed a strain too far near the finish, but the last round excess isn’t enough to banish the amusement (and some real laffs) on the way there. Grant knocks it back with seemingly casual ease, Coburn as ever is winning. Monroe scores playing a breath-catching dimwit: she was getting a major push from Fox that year, with roles of varying import in Don’t Bother To Knock, Clash By Night, We’re Not Married and O. Henry’s Full House. Best in the cast (except maybe that scintillating simian) is Rogers, who releases some inner imp in some whippet dance moves and does a comic hysterical crying jag that could be a model in acting classes.

While Hawks thought the end product wasn’t as sharp as he’d hoped, many of the director’s aficionados bend over backwards to adorn the show with layers of underlying seriousness and detailing of themes he employed in his films. Seems a bit much to smother the fun with critical deep-think. What would the monkey make of it all? Box office was $5,600,000, securing place #47 for the year.

Assorted scientists and associates: Hugh Marlowe, Henri Letondal, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, Larry Keating, Esther Dale, George Winslow, Kathleen Freeman, Harry Carey Jr., Olive Carey, Dabbs Greer, Jerry Paris, Maudie Prickett.