# Monkey Business (1952 film)
**Monkey Business** is a 1952 American screwball comedy directed by [Howard Hawks](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-hawks), in which an absent-minded research chemist drinks a youth formula that a laboratory chimpanzee has accidentally brewed and poured into the office water cooler, causing him, his wife, and eventually his boss to regress to adolescence and then childhood. It was produced by Sol C. Siegel for Twentieth Century-Fox, runs 97 minutes, and stars [Cary Grant](https://www.edgepedia.org/cary-grant), Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, and [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marilyn-monroe).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Howard Hawks; produced by Sol C. Siegel for Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Writers | Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, I. A. L. Diamond, and Harry Segall[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Principal cast | Cary Grant as Dr. Barnaby Fulton, Ginger Rogers as Edwina Fulton, Charles Coburn as Oliver Oxly, Marilyn Monroe as Lois Laurel[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Release | New York opening 3 September 1952; copyright registered 5 September 1952 (LP2142)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Physical properties | 97 minutes, 8,715 feet on 10 reels, black and white, Western Electric sound[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Working title | *Darling, I Am Growing Younger*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) |
| Reception | 74% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (27 reviews); 6.9/10 on IMDb from about 17,000 ratings[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1014138-monkey_business) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044916/ratings/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Barnaby Fulton (Grant) is a chemist trying to develop a way to reverse the aging process for the chemical company run by Oliver Oxly (Coburn). His formula fails on his test chimpanzees, Rudolph and Esther, but one night a chimp escapes its cage, mixes several of Barnaby's chemicals together, and pours the mixture into the water cooler.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952)
The next day Barnaby washes down a sample of his own potion with water from the cooler and begins acting like a much younger man, believing his formula works. He buys a sports car and pursues his boss's secretary, Lois Laurel (Monroe). His wife Edwina (Rogers) senses something is wrong, drinks from the cooler herself, and starts behaving like a silly adolescent. The two regress further after booster doses, playing games and fighting like ten-year-old children, and eventually other company executives, including Coburn's character, partake of the water and begin behaving boyishly as well.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952) • [5](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1952/09/13/better-take-hadacol) The film ends with Barnaby rewarded with a fine job and money for the work his chimpanzee has done.[5](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1952/09/13/better-take-hadacol)
## Production and censorship
The film was shot from 5 March to late April 1952.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) According to the MPAA/PCA file at the AMPAS Library, the Breen Office rejected a 6 February 1952 version of the screenplay, stating that "the story of Dr. Fulton's youth formula amounts to a story of the invention of an aphrodisiac, which mainly exploits the lurid, or what might be called 'sexsational' aspects of such a drug." After meetings with Hawks and Siegel, the PCA accepted the script once the formula's nature was changed, including renaming it from "Cupidone" to a "pseudo-scientific type of vitamin."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS)
Casting changed during development. A June 1951 news item reported that [Danny Kaye](https://www.edgepedia.org/danny-kaye) was originally set to star, and a modern source reports that Hawks considered [Ava Gardner](https://www.edgepedia.org/ava-gardner) for the female lead.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) Hawks was not pleased to work with [Ginger Rogers](https://www.edgepedia.org/ginger-rogers), who was forced on him by the studio; he had wanted only Grant's character to experience the serum's effects, but Rogers insisted on also "getting young," and Hawks felt her scenes were the weakest in the picture.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952)
The credit sequence frames the film with a joke: before and after the above-title cast credits, Grant comes out of a house and an offscreen voice tells him "Not yet, Cary," sending him back inside. According to a modern source, the voice is Hawks himself.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS) The crew included cinematographer Milton Krasner, editor William B. Murphy, and production designers Lyle Wheeler and George Patrick.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS)
## Marilyn Monroe's role
Monroe plays Lois Laurel, the boss's secretary, in a supporting part. Her big sequence is a frenetic outing with Grant: roller-skating, swimming, and a hair-raising drive. Grant later said he had no idea she would become a big star: "If she had something different from the other actresses, it wasn't apparent at the time. She seemed very shy and quiet."[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021641/marilyn-monroe) It was during *Monkey Business* that she began dating [Joe DiMaggio](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-dimaggio), and a calendar reprinting two nude photographs from years earlier brought the press to hound the set.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021641/marilyn-monroe) After the film, Fox chief Darryl Zanuck rethought his plans and cast Monroe in *[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes](https://www.edgepedia.org/gentlemen-prefer-blondes-1953-film)* (1953), again directed by Hawks.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021641/marilyn-monroe)
## Reception and legacy
Contemporary response was mixed. The *New Yorker*'s 1952 review called the premise "a rather labored notion" and found the film's variations on the rejuvenation theme overextended, though it credited Grant and Rogers with provoking "fleeting laughter."[5](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1952/09/13/better-take-hadacol) Hawks himself later agreed: "I don't think the premise of the film was really believable, and for that reason it was not as funny as it should have been."[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952)
The film's critical standing rose through French criticism. Jacques Rivette, then writing for *Cahiers du Cinéma*, devoted a 1953 essay, "The Genius of Howard Hawks," to the film and came to view it as one of the masterworks of the studio era.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952) Later assessments also diverge: Richard Brody in *The New Yorker* called it "a summit of frenetic invention," while Dave Kehr of the *Chicago Reader* wrote that it "ranks with the best works of the American cinema"; Variety, by contrast, judged that the attempt to draw out "a thin, familiar slapstick idea" was not carried off.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/monkey-business) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1014138-monkey_business)
TCM's retrospective places the film as highly derivative of Hawks's own *Bringing Up Baby* (1938), which also starred Grant as an absent-minded professor, with an animal in the title driving the plot into gear.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952) The BFI similarly notes that the film looks back to screwball's heyday and especially to that earlier picture.[8](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Acontext_id=&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=monkey-business) Modern guides also flag the film's dated humor, including depictions of Native American culture now widely regarded as offensive.[9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/monkey-business-1952)
## References
1. [Monkey Business (1952), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50578-MONKEY-BUSINESS)
2. [Monkey Business (1952), Turner Classic Movies article by Paul Tatara](https://www.tcm.com/articles/85242/monkey-business-1952)
3. [Monkey Business, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1014138-monkey_business)
4. [Monkey Business (1952) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044916/ratings/)
5. [Better Take Hadacol, The New Yorker, 6 September 1952](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1952/09/13/better-take-hadacol)
6. [Marilyn Monroe, TCM article by Jeremy Arnold](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021641/marilyn-monroe)
7. [Monkey Business, The New Yorker, Richard Brody](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/monkey-business)
8. [Monkey Business, BFI](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Acontext_id=&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=monkey-business)
9. [Monkey Business (1952) Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/monkey-business-1952)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license