Apr. 12, 2004 - 9:17 am
i checked this one out a few weeks ago on a suggestion from Dale downtown at the main library, but didn't get a chance to see it so i had to give it another shot. my mom and i watched it yesterday and it turned out to be a pretty good activity for Easter since it was so much fun to watch.
Monkey Business concerns a chemist who is past his prime and his wife who accidentally keep taking a youth formula that makes them act like children. a monkey actually mixed the formula together when he escaped from his cage and no one seems to know what the ingredients for the mixture are. all sorts of antics follow like Cary Grant going out and getting a buzz cut, buying a speedy new car and then flying down the highway with an adoringly stupid secretary (Marilyn Monroe), and Ginger Rogers constantly asking for a divorce from Grant when she gets upset with him in her childlike state. it sounds annoying i think from reading what i've just written, but it's actually some very funny stuff.
the cover to this dvd case is just wrong. Marilyn Monroe is such a side note in this film. it focuses more on the comedy between Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. i guess the thinking though is that more people have watched the film waiting to see the bits with Monroe in it, so when selling it, we should focus the packaging more on that aspect. maybe a good idea...but if you're not into it solely because of her then the cover just seems stupid. i mean she doesn't even wear the outfit that they show her in on the cover.
this is kind of weird for me to be seeing this with Ginger Rogers in it since i guess she's not supposed to be the biggest sex symbol of the film. in all of the other things i've seen her in, it's the opposite. granted she was starting to get older at the time of this film, but it still disarms me a little i guess.
the whole Howard Hawks (who directed this film) and Cary Grant combination was a great one. i seem to enjoy all of the movies that they did together. actually there seem to be two of those that i haven't seen yet. Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and I Was a Male War Bride (1949). i should check those out. Hawks definitely uses Grant to his full comedic potential.