MONKEY BUSINESS

Well, I’ve avoided this film up to now because the premise (an elixir of youth) seemed too silly.  Not that the idea might not have possibilities in the right hands but here back in 1952 I feared that the treatment would be little more than basic slapstick, despite the copious amount of talent deployed.

And I was right.

Cary Grant plays Barnaby, an absentminded professor who is trying to develop a formula which might at least slow down the aging process, although his aged boss is looking to actually reverse it.

Accidentally one of the chimps being experimented upon does create such a thing.  Unknowingly Barnaby takes it and for a few hours behaves like a teenager before the effect wears off.  Then his wife Edwina (Ginger Rogers) takes it so that she too becomes a teenager for a while.

Then they both inadvertently take a really large dose and regress to toddler.  Then that wears off and the rest of the rejuvenation potion is accidentally poured down the sink.

The end.

Unless you find skilled performers like Grant and Rogers behaving as youngsters hilarious (I don’t) then this film really drags. 

And some parts of it haven’t (ahem) aged very well, such as the animal experimentation background or the portrayal of Marilyn Monroe as the archetypal blonde who confuses punctuation and punctuality and who is only employed for her looks.  

Although to be fair when she is described as like a half-child and Edwina drily remarks ‘not the visible half’, I did chuckle. 

That aside I found little to laugh at.