Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers star in Monkey Business as Barnaby and Edwina, a 1952 comedy that finds them acting younger than they are though in reality, you are really only as young as you feel. The funny thing about the two in this film is that they feel their actual ages and yet when they take Barnaby’s serum, the man is a chemist looking for the fountain of youth, they revert back a number of years mentally and physically and they feel better than they have in ages which of course, leads to all sorts of trouble. Directed by the steady hand of Howard Hawks, he leads his cast through the hilarity of the situations they find themselves in and the result is a film that rarely feels dated and is one that can easily be watched multiple times over.

The one thing you will notice above all others in the film is that the comedy is simple, pure and overall, smart. There is no crassness to be found; no depravity or obscenities to fall back on and the writers had to do exactly that – write. Because of that, the film turned out to be really well written with a lot of charm and wit. It was funny when it needed to be, which was quite often, and when it was not, there was either dramatic tension or moments where it simply made you smile at the easygoing nature of it. Cary Grant is not a man you would necessarily associate with comedy though when you look back on his career, he appeared in a number of them amongst his dramatic roles. He always seemed to have a carefree nature and it made him a natural when it came to delivering material that was humourous in nature. The same can be said for Ginger Rogers, his opposite in the film, though she had a lot more practice at it, appearing in more comedies and musicals than she did dramatic roles. There was a natural screen chemistry between the two in this movie and it worked perfectly, never believing for a second that they were not husband and wife. Also appearing in the film were Charles Coburn who was always a very funny man, able to make one laugh quite easily and Marilyn Monroe.

Monroe would play the secretary to Coburn, hired for her looks and not her smarts though she would prove to have a little of those as the picture moved along. Monroe really gets to shine early on in the picture as she and Grant hit the town doing all sorts of activities like roller-skating and swimming after he takes his formula. What is a little funny about this film is that Monroe was more than likely hired for her looks and not so much her ability to act, even if she did do a great job which she did, and in the movie she plays the same role. A little meta to be sure or perhaps the writers simply having a bit of fun, but whatever the case, casting Monroe was a bit of genius as she was spot on for the entirety of the film and would almost steal the scene away from the leads on more than one occasion.

There are a lot of funny moments in the film and once it starts up, there is no stopping it until it makes its way to the end. The very fact that you are watching a couple of middle-aged adults try to be half their age is funny enough, but you mix in the actual things that they do and it becomes even funnier. One of the better moments of the film is when Grant joins in with a bunch of the local kids who are playing outside so that he might get the better of his wife’s former beau. It is so ridiculous on one hand, but on the other it provides the perfect lead-in to the finale of the picture. As a whole, the film is quite silly from the premise of the youth formula and to everything that followed, but when you end up with a movie that never fails to entertain and can get your audience to laugh, then what does it really matter?

4 out of 5