Monkey Business (1952)

    "Grant has never been better..."

With Marilyn Monroe.

Monkey Business - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

" Grant has never been better than in his part as the absent-minded professor in search of the elixir of youth.
His extraordinary agile and amusing performance is matched to the hilt by that of Ginger Rogers as his long-suffering wife. And those who recall that Miss Rogers was once a famous dancing star, will find that she excels in that department. She obviously delights in her part, which is a demanding one.
Throughout, director Hawks has seen to it that Monkey Business doesn't become static. Grant's wild car ride with Marilyn Monroe is pure farce in the great tradition of the screen and some other climactic sequences come across with the same explosive effect." 

- Motion Picture Herald

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 58 - Monkey Business (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

For more, see also:

Quote From Today - 15 September 2022

On This Day - 15 September 2021

On This Day - 15 September 2020

Quote From Today... Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)

"You're looking at a contented man."

With Ginger Rogers.

Once Upon a Honeymoon was Cary Grant's 42nd full length feature film.

Patrick 'Pat' O'Toole: You're looking at a contented man.

Katie O'Hara Von Luber, aka Katherine Butt-Smith: Why?

Patrick 'Pat' O'Toole: Well, you have to go back a long way to explain that. Yeah, I'd have to go back to when destiny threw us together. I was attracted, but, so differently. I was attracted more or less by, eh...

Katie O'Hara Von Luber, aka Katherine Butt-Smith: By, eh, my measurements?

Patrick 'Pat' O'Toole: That's the idea. That's it. Yes, yes. You were lovely of form and face. But, I had the feeling that if a gnat dove into your pool of knowledge, he'd a broken his neck. But, then I found out there was more to you.

Quote From Today... Monkey Business (1952)

"Well, watch your head. I'll watch everything else!"

Monkey Business was Cary Grant's 58th full length feature film.

Barnaby: Well, all set? Is you motor running?

Lois Laurel: Is your motor running?

Barnaby: Is yours? Takes awhile to warm up.

Lois Laurel: It does, me too.

Barnaby: Well, watch your head. I'll watch everything else!

On This Day...Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942)

On this day in 1942, Cary Grant released his 42nd full length film, Once Upon a Honeymoon. His first of two films with Ginger Rogers.

Synopsis:

At the start of WWII, Katie O'Hara (Ginger Rogers), an American burlesque girl intent on social climbing, marries Austrian Baron Von Luber (Walter Slezak). Pat O'Toole (Cary Grant), an American radio reporter, sees this as a chance to investigate Von Luber, who is suspected of having Nazi ties. 

As country after country falls to the Nazis, O'Tool follows O'Hara across Europe. At first he is after a story, but he gradually falls in love with her. When she learns that her husband is indeed a Nazi, O'Hara fakes her death and runs off with O'Toole. In Paris, she is recruited to spy for the allies; he uses a radio broadcast to make Von Luber and the Nazis look like fools.

"Cary Grant is quite believable as the radio news analyst who turns on his French and German dialects and Irish charm with equal facility." - Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal.

With Ginger Rogers.

Did You Know?

Berlin-born Natasha Lytess, who appears in the small role as the Jewish hotel maid, was Marilyn Monroe's acting coach and friend for many years.

Cary Grant thought the screenplay was rubbish, but agreed to do the film because he had been condemned for allegedly dodging the draft in both the UK and the US.

The question of top billing was resolved by having half of the prints with Cary Grant listed first, and the other half with Ginger Rogers listed first. The TCM print lists Grant first, but the programs distributed for the world premiere at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City listed Rogers first.

O'Toole ends his coerced radio broadcast with the phrase, "Tell it to the Marines." In the English usage of that day, the retort "Tell it to the Marines" meant, "Everything you just said is total bull, and cannot be believed for one minute." So by ending the speech that way, he was telling his American listeners that everything he had just said in the broadcast was untrue. Presumably his Nazi captors did not get the nuance, but the moviegoing audience would have.

With Albert Bassermann.

Cast:

 Cary Grant ... Patrick O'Toole
 Ginger Rogers ... Kathie O'Hara
 Walter Slezak ... Baron Franz Von Luber
 Albert Dekker ... Gaston Le Blanc
 Albert Bassermann ... Gen. Borelski
 Ferike Boros ... Elsa
 John Banner ... German Capt. Von Kleinoch
 Harry Shannon ... Ed Cumberland
 Natasha Lytess ... Anna

Lobby Cards:

Press Stills:

International Posters:

"There Was a Honeymoon" (Spanish)

Directed by Leo McCarey.

Produced by RKO Radio.

Running time: 116 minutes.

On This Day...Monkey Business (1952)

 Today, in 1952, saw the release of Cary Grant's 58th film Monkey Business.

Grant's character is Dr. Barnaby Fulton, a research chemist, who has been working on a formula to regenerate worn-out tissues in the human body. After taking the formula himself, he starts to feel younger which leads to complications and fun!!

 

Marilyn Monroe stars as Lois Laurel, a secretary at Dr. Fulton's company. Also starring as his wife, Edwina, is Ginger Rogers.

"If youth is anything like the nonsense displayed here, maybe it's just as well that nobody has really concocted anything that would force us older citizens back into it." - John McCarten, The New Yorker

"Grant has never been better than in his part as the absent-minded professor in search of the elixir of youth." - Motion Picture Herald

"...only Cary Grant could do Barnaby justice with the underplaying that avoids the mawkish and the silly." - Newsweek

Cary Grant showing that once an acrobat always an acrobat.

The skating scene with Marilyn Monroe, overseen by Howard Hawks and crew.

Cast:

Professor Barnaby Fulton     Cary Grant

Edwina Fulton                      Ginger Rogers

Mr. Oliver Oxly                    Charles Coburn

Lois Laurel                           Marilyn Monroe

Hank Entwhistle                   Hugh Marlowe

Dr. Siegfried Kitzel               Henri Letondal

Dr. Zoldeck                          Robert Cornthwaite

Mr. G.J. Culverly                 Larry Keating

Dr. Bruner                            Douglas Spencer

Mrs. Rhinelander                 Esther Dale

Little Indian                         George Winslow

Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe costume test pictures.

Lobby Cards:

Lobby card that has the alternative title "Be Your Age"

Spanish lobby card - "Vitamins for Love"

With Ginger Rogers and George Winslow.

Directed by Howard Hawks.

Distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

Running time: 97 minutes.

With Ginger Rogers and "Esther".

Leading Ladies...Part 2.

So here are the actresses who starred in two films each alongside Cary Grant.

Jean Arthur:

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and Talk Of The Town (1942)

Also appeared in the following radio shows:

Only Angels Have Wings (May 28th, 1939)
Talk Of The Town (May 17th, 1943)

Joan Bennett:

Big Brown Eyes (1936) and Wedding Present (1936)

Ingrid Bergman:

Notorious (1946) and Indiscreet (1958)

"She wears no make-up and has big feet and peasant hips, yet women envy her ability to be herself." 
- Cary Grant

Nancy Carroll:

Hot Saturday (1932) and Woman Accussed (1933)

Betsy Drake:

Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) and Room For One More (1952)

Also appeared in the following radio show:

Every Girl Should Be Married (June 27th, 1949)

"Betsy was a delightful comedienne, but I don't think Hollywood was ever really her milieu. She wanted to help humanity, to help others help themselves." - Cary Grant

Joan Fontaine:

Gunga Din (1939) and Suspicion (1941)

Sophia Loren:

The Pride and the Passion (1957) and Houseboat (1958)

"I was fascinated with him, with his warmth, affection, intelligence, and his wonderfully dry, mischievous sense of humor." - Sophia Loren

Ginger Rogers:

Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942) and Monkey Business (1952)

Ann Sheridan

Enter Madame (1935: as Clara Lou Sheridan) and I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

Mae West:

She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I'm No Angel (1933)

Loretta Young:

Born To Be Bad (1934) and The Bishop's Wife (1947)