Evening star., 1952-11-27


not even the insurance represented
by Miss Rogers. Grant and
Marilyn Monroe can provide ade-
quate protection in cases like
Monkey Business" Everybody
involved in the goth Century Fox
project looks slightly demented in
his or her effort to prove its as
funny as Director Howard Hawks
said.
The producers, however, obvi-
ously believe in the script which
Ben Hecht. Charles Lederer and
2 I. A. L. Diamond based upon a
story by Harry Segall. They
could not have been more gen.
erouS in casting a Shakespearian
comedy although they would have
been much more rewarded for
their largesse.
1t is possible. although not very
probable, that on paper the
,screenplay looked colossauy comic.
1t is about a whacky scientist who
Us working on a real wonder drug,
an elixir capable of making
Charles Coburn chase Miss Nom
roe around his Office desk.
Patiently this could be a pretty
hilarious sight. Unfortunately
that is not how it works out. How
st works out. in fact, is almost the
precise reverse
This leaves Miss Rogers. an al
most historically amusing girl.
Grant, Coburn and number OF
others looking merely silly. Miss
Monroe misses the same category
for the reason that, whatever she
can look, silly is not it.
Only an idiot would venture
into description of the labyryn-
thine plot of Monkey Business"
A cagey type will merely observe
that it's setting is one of those
medical laboratories where chem
lists tinker with vitamins, hor-
moneS, etc,
Grant, the most prominent of
these, is working on a re-energizer
drug which he hopes will make
people feel bit better. Owner of
the lab. Charles Coburn, has other
ideas. What he wants is a youth
nectar that will convert octo-
genarians into juvenile delin-
quents.
Chemist Grant. serious scien-
tist, will have no truck with this.
but he does take a swig of the
stuff one day. Before he knows
what's happened. he is hot
rodding through the country with
Miss Monroe, dropping off at
roller-Skating Kinks and swimming
pools, and otherwise conducting
himself like a souped-up faun.
This actually is fairly funny. as
the spectacle of a scientist on
hinge with Miss Monroe is bound
to be. The comedy of it cannot
survive the repetition of four or
five variations of the same theme
& X x
The multitude of authors of
Monkey Business" achieve a
genuine frenzy in an effort to in
vent enough incident to make
four-star farce out of their script.
In the course of this, they come
up with some downright absurd
situations. One of these involves
Grant playing Indian with gang
of children and enlisting their
aid in scalping his rival for Miss
Rogers affections.
In another desperate sequence,
Coburn and his elderly company
directors mistakenly dose them
selves with the elixar and wreck
the laboratory with a great soda
water bottle battle.
In Hollywood. these antics very
probably are killing but lot of
people elsewhere have left ado
lescence.
x x
Miss Rogers and Grant, a pair
OF gifted farceurs. earn a kind of
grudging admiration for giving
such a courageous try to such un-
rewarding material as Monkey
Business" provides them. No in
dignity is too outrageous to merit
a whirl on their part, including
one in which she confuses a baby
NAH NARn