Basically this nice little comedy by Howard Hawks is based on the urban legend that I used in the summary line: If you put a certain number of monkeys in front of type writers, for a long period of time, eventually you are going to get the complete works of Shakespeare, the King James Bible, War and Peace, Little Women, etc. This urban legend is based on probabilities, but whether it is true or not is something nobody is really prepared to attempt (it would be too difficult to monitor and too expensive and too long). Here the whole idea is that an overly observant chimpanzee in a laboratory might be able to mix the elixir that regains lost youth or zest.
Howard Hawks had directed several comedies with Cary Grant, and Grant's Dr. Barnaby Fulton seems like a cousin of Dr. David Huxley, the hapless paleontologist in Hawks' 1938 comedy "Bringing Up Baby". Huxley is a child in handling the madcap heiress Susan who is pursuing him no matter what. Fulton is not as helpless as that, but he does have some similarities. He wears eyeglasses (like Huxley), and he can seem somewhat absent minded like Huxley. Fulton has attracted the attention of Miss Laurel (Marilyn Monroe), the secretary of Mr. Oxley (Charles Coburn). When Fulton goes to see Oxley for a brief conference, Ms Laurel tries to lure his attention by showing him her lovely leg - supposedly demonstrating her new nylons using a process he's invented. Fulton looks at her leg closely, but clinically regarding the success of the unbreakable nylon process.*
Ginger Rogers too showed some fragments of her past screen career as Edwina Fulton. She constantly wants to go dancing, and when she drinks the rejuvenating formula she starts doing some nice dance steps (reminding us of her days with Astaire, but even of her work in the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s). At one point when she has taken too much of the formula she is suddenly 10-12 years old, and we see a repeat of her "Sue-Sue" Applegate in "The Major And The Minor".
Grant works for a corporation headed by Coburn and Larry Keating. They have been prospering from Grant's chemical inventions and patents, but Coburn is particularly interested in this rejuvenation formula. It is supposed to make a man feel decades younger and vigorous again. As Coburn has the beautiful Monroe as a secretary with indifferent skills (he hands her a paper to have someone else type, and when she protests to get another chance to type it instead, he gently explains it is too important - "Anyone can type!", he says to Grant) it is obvious that if the formula works he will be using it to pursue Monroe. Coburn is so desperate he wants to convert the entire factory to just produce the rejuvenation formula if it succeeds.
Grant is not too happy - he's been working for two years on the formula and there has been no success yet. He leaves the monkey cage open, and a female chimpanzee (who has been watching Grant mix the formula) throws the chemicals together and hides it within the water cooler. And every time the formula that Grant makes is tried, the guinea pig (Grant, Rogers, whoever) takes a drink of water to help make it palatable. And, of course, it is the unknown concoction of the monkey that actually sets off the rejuvenation.
The film follows the good and bad points of rejuvenation. Yes it does make a person more vigorous and able to do things that he hasn't been able to do for years (Grant does a cartwheel at one point). But it makes the user unreasonable to others who are not similarly peppy - Rogers thinks that Grant is a drag, as he doesn't take the concoction when they go out back to the hotel they honeymooned in. She is ready to jitterbug, and he's collapsing. And if too much is taken you become emotionally immature, leading to Grant arranging the scalping of his former rival (Hugh Marlowe) by some real kids.
The film has some nice little bits in it. An immature Grant is asked for the "secret ingredient" to his formula. How much, Coburn asks him, for the formula? "I want a zillion dollars!", Grant says - which he claims is a trillion million. And when he is trying to arrange the scalping of Marlowe, one of the youths (George Winslow) keeps bringing him down to earth by reminding him they need a war dance if they are going to scalp anyone!
Probably not on par with "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Gal Friday", but it was a good comedy for all that.
*However, later on, when he's taken the rejuvenating formula, Fulton does recognize Ms Laurel by her legs under a sign - suggesting that the attractiveness of her legs did make an impact on him.
Howard Hawks had directed several comedies with Cary Grant, and Grant's Dr. Barnaby Fulton seems like a cousin of Dr. David Huxley, the hapless paleontologist in Hawks' 1938 comedy "Bringing Up Baby". Huxley is a child in handling the madcap heiress Susan who is pursuing him no matter what. Fulton is not as helpless as that, but he does have some similarities. He wears eyeglasses (like Huxley), and he can seem somewhat absent minded like Huxley. Fulton has attracted the attention of Miss Laurel (Marilyn Monroe), the secretary of Mr. Oxley (Charles Coburn). When Fulton goes to see Oxley for a brief conference, Ms Laurel tries to lure his attention by showing him her lovely leg - supposedly demonstrating her new nylons using a process he's invented. Fulton looks at her leg closely, but clinically regarding the success of the unbreakable nylon process.*
Ginger Rogers too showed some fragments of her past screen career as Edwina Fulton. She constantly wants to go dancing, and when she drinks the rejuvenating formula she starts doing some nice dance steps (reminding us of her days with Astaire, but even of her work in the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s). At one point when she has taken too much of the formula she is suddenly 10-12 years old, and we see a repeat of her "Sue-Sue" Applegate in "The Major And The Minor".
Grant works for a corporation headed by Coburn and Larry Keating. They have been prospering from Grant's chemical inventions and patents, but Coburn is particularly interested in this rejuvenation formula. It is supposed to make a man feel decades younger and vigorous again. As Coburn has the beautiful Monroe as a secretary with indifferent skills (he hands her a paper to have someone else type, and when she protests to get another chance to type it instead, he gently explains it is too important - "Anyone can type!", he says to Grant) it is obvious that if the formula works he will be using it to pursue Monroe. Coburn is so desperate he wants to convert the entire factory to just produce the rejuvenation formula if it succeeds.
Grant is not too happy - he's been working for two years on the formula and there has been no success yet. He leaves the monkey cage open, and a female chimpanzee (who has been watching Grant mix the formula) throws the chemicals together and hides it within the water cooler. And every time the formula that Grant makes is tried, the guinea pig (Grant, Rogers, whoever) takes a drink of water to help make it palatable. And, of course, it is the unknown concoction of the monkey that actually sets off the rejuvenation.
The film follows the good and bad points of rejuvenation. Yes it does make a person more vigorous and able to do things that he hasn't been able to do for years (Grant does a cartwheel at one point). But it makes the user unreasonable to others who are not similarly peppy - Rogers thinks that Grant is a drag, as he doesn't take the concoction when they go out back to the hotel they honeymooned in. She is ready to jitterbug, and he's collapsing. And if too much is taken you become emotionally immature, leading to Grant arranging the scalping of his former rival (Hugh Marlowe) by some real kids.
The film has some nice little bits in it. An immature Grant is asked for the "secret ingredient" to his formula. How much, Coburn asks him, for the formula? "I want a zillion dollars!", Grant says - which he claims is a trillion million. And when he is trying to arrange the scalping of Marlowe, one of the youths (George Winslow) keeps bringing him down to earth by reminding him they need a war dance if they are going to scalp anyone!
Probably not on par with "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Gal Friday", but it was a good comedy for all that.
*However, later on, when he's taken the rejuvenating formula, Fulton does recognize Ms Laurel by her legs under a sign - suggesting that the attractiveness of her legs did make an impact on him.