Monkey Business 1952 Cary Grant M#787
Monkey Business is a 1952 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn and Marilyn Monroe. To avoid confusion with the unrelated 1931 Marx Brothers film of the same name, the film is sometimes billed as Howard Hawks' Monkey Business.
Plot
Ginger Rogers, Robert Cornthwaite, Cary Grant, and Marilyn Monroe in Monkey Business
Dr. Barnaby Fulton, an absent-minded research chemist for the Oxly chemical company, is trying to develop an elixir of youth. He is urged on by his commercially minded boss, Oliver Oxly. One of Barnaby's chimpanzees, Esther, breaks loose in the laboratory, mixes a beaker of chemicals and pours the mix into the water cooler. The chemicals have the rejuvenating effect that Barnaby is seeking.
Unaware of Esther's antics, Barnaby tests his latest experimental concoction on himself followed by a drink of water from the cooler. He soon begins to act like a 20-year-old and spends the day out on the town with his boss's secretary, Lois Laurel. When Barnaby's wife Edwina learns that the serum works, she drinks some, along with water from the cooler, and transforms into a prankish schoolgirl.
Edwina places an impetuous phone call to her old flame and family lawyer Hank Entwhistle. Her mother, who is unaware of the chemical influence that causes Edwina's actions, believes that Edwina is unhappy in her marriage and wants a divorce. Barnaby and Edwina go to the laboratory the next morning to destroy the formula. However, they unwittingly consume it by using the contaminated water cooler to make coffee. Oxly and the board try to buy the formula from Barnaby while he is under its influence.
Barnaby plays with a group of children pretending to be Indians. Meanwhile, Edwina falls asleep and awakens to find a baby next to her. She mistakenly believes that the baby is Barnaby having overdosed on the formula, but the baby is actually under the care of the Fultons' housekeeper. She and Oxly attempt to find an antidote and Edwina tries to coax the baby to sleep, hoping that it will reverse the formula's effects. Numerous scientists and Mr. Oxly drink the water at the laboratory and revert to a second childhood. Barnaby crawls into the laboratory through the window and lies down to sleep next to the baby. Edwina discovers him and realizes her mistake.
Later at home, as Barnaby, who has been offered a new contract by Oxly, prepares for an evening with Edwina, their spirits and marriage renewed, Barnaby notes that "you're old only when you forget you're young."
Cast
• Cary Grant as Dr. Barnaby Fulton
• Ginger Rogers as Edwina Fulton
• Charles Coburn as Oliver Oxly
• Marilyn Monroe as Lois Laurel
• Hugh Marlowe as Hank Entwhistle
• Henri Letondal as Dr. Jerome Kitzel
• Robert Cornthwaite as Dr. Zoldeck
• Larry Keating as G. J. Culverly
• Douglas Spencer as Dr. Brunner
• Esther Dale as Mrs. Rhinelander
• George Winslow as a little cowboy
• Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. Brannigan (uncredited)[2]
• Harry Carey Jr. as a reporter (uncredited)[2]
• Howard Hawks as the voice at the start of the film that says to Cary Grant not to open the door yet (uncredited)
Posted May 2, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC