I guess there's a fine line between screwball comedy and slapstick. This one came down a bit more on the slapstick side once it got going and left me somewhat unsatisfied, even with the caliber of players in the lead roles. Cary Grant was a veteran of these kinds of pictures, but for a better definition of 'screwball', you'd have to check him out in "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Girl Friday", both from a decade earlier.
Something occurred to me as I watched this and I never mentioned it before, but there's always a first time. Have you ever noticed, no matter how big the star or their celebrity appeal, it all seems to go by the boards when they step into a 1950's era kitchen and the appliances make things feel so outdated. That's the first thing that hit me when the Fulton's (Grant and Ginger Rogers) entered their home for the first time. Not that it bothers me because that's just the way things were, but it's something of a shocker when you see it today considering all the modern gadgetry we have available now. Just an observation.
Now Marilyn Monroe, it didn't help her real life persona to be cast in a role like this because she had to carry that dumb blonde personality around all throughout her short career. If she had gotten more roles like the her character Roslyn Taber in "The Misfits", well, who knows, her self esteem might have taken her on an entirely different course. As it is, we'll never know.
So getting back to the story, we come to find out that at least in this case, the old fountain of youth is not all that it's cracked up to be, especially when monkeyshines are involved. Speaking of which, I wish the chimp who performed here was credited for the role, it had the best facial expressions of any I've ever seen, and that would include Cheeta from all those Tarzan flicks of old. You know, Cheeta lived to the ripe old age of seventy nine, so when Barnaby described 'Rudolph' as being eighty four, the writers wouldn't have been too far off the mark. But then again, they had 'Esther' on screen, so who would ever know?
After all the hi-jinx, the story finally comes around to the message we probably all were waiting for, that is, the idea expressed in my summary line delivered by Barnaby Fulton. Another way of expressing it would have been the way Barnaby replied to Miss Laurel (Monroe) when she asked him if his motor was running - "Is yours?"
Something occurred to me as I watched this and I never mentioned it before, but there's always a first time. Have you ever noticed, no matter how big the star or their celebrity appeal, it all seems to go by the boards when they step into a 1950's era kitchen and the appliances make things feel so outdated. That's the first thing that hit me when the Fulton's (Grant and Ginger Rogers) entered their home for the first time. Not that it bothers me because that's just the way things were, but it's something of a shocker when you see it today considering all the modern gadgetry we have available now. Just an observation.
Now Marilyn Monroe, it didn't help her real life persona to be cast in a role like this because she had to carry that dumb blonde personality around all throughout her short career. If she had gotten more roles like the her character Roslyn Taber in "The Misfits", well, who knows, her self esteem might have taken her on an entirely different course. As it is, we'll never know.
So getting back to the story, we come to find out that at least in this case, the old fountain of youth is not all that it's cracked up to be, especially when monkeyshines are involved. Speaking of which, I wish the chimp who performed here was credited for the role, it had the best facial expressions of any I've ever seen, and that would include Cheeta from all those Tarzan flicks of old. You know, Cheeta lived to the ripe old age of seventy nine, so when Barnaby described 'Rudolph' as being eighty four, the writers wouldn't have been too far off the mark. But then again, they had 'Esther' on screen, so who would ever know?
After all the hi-jinx, the story finally comes around to the message we probably all were waiting for, that is, the idea expressed in my summary line delivered by Barnaby Fulton. Another way of expressing it would have been the way Barnaby replied to Miss Laurel (Monroe) when she asked him if his motor was running - "Is yours?"