From: mleeper@optonline.net   
      
   At least for the record Howard Hawks did not direct THE THING FROM   
   ANOTHER WORLD, though he certainly did contribute to the creative   
   process of that film.  But a year after that film was made Hawks   
   really did direct a science fiction film.  It is not remembered   
   like THE THING, but that is because it was really not intended for   
   a science fiction audience.  The film was a comedy with Cary Grant   
   and Ginger Rogers.  It was a somewhat half-hearted film at that,   
   neither good science fiction nor good comedy.  Even if it was   
   Christian Nyby who directed THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, that film   
   better represents the best of Hawks, and not MONKEY BUSINESS.   
      
   Cary Grant plays the absent-minded Professor Barnaby Fulton and   
   Ginger Rogers plays his wife Edwina.  As the film opens they are on   
   the way to a party.  But before he can leave Barnaby gets involved   
   thinking about a problem he is having with an (as yet) unexplained   
   formula he is trying to develop for Oxley, the chemical company for   
   which he works.  Edwina humors him and fixes him a hot bowl of   
   soup.  This gives Barnaby the idea he thinks he needs to use with   
   his formula-he has to heat it.  Too late to go to the party at   
   least his mind is off of his problem.  He has a romantic evening   
   home alone with Edwina rather than going to the party.  Having   
   romantic evenings when they are expected at parties is a continuing   
   theme of this film.   
      
   The next morning at the office at Oxley Chemical we learn a little   
   more about the formula.  His boss Oxley (Charles Coburn) is waiting   
   on his results and wants to call it B4.  As we learn what he is   
   working on is a rejuvenating formula, a sort of chemical fountain   
   of youth.  Almost immediately it seems that he has it.  An elderly   
   experimental chimpanzee is acting like a baby again.  Barnaby and   
   Oxley go to see and are impressed until Barnaby notices the   
   chimpanzee really is another chimpanzee entirely, a young   
   experimental subject.  An accidental clothing switch has led to its   
   being mis-identified.  Disappointed Barnaby goes back to work on   
   the formula.  But when he is out of the room the playful young ape   
   escapes again and starts mixing chemicals.  The chemicals end up in   
   the water cooler.  Barnaby is ready to try his formula on himself   
   in what should be a safe dosage.  The drug is bitter, however, and   
   he takes water from the water cooler with it, getting some of the   
   chemical that the ape mixed up-which just happens to be the right   
   proportions.   
      
   Barnaby starts getting an odd reaction all over his body, but then   
   he identifies it as feeling younger.  He starts feeling like a   
   twenty-year-old.  He finds he cannot be serious talking on the   
   telephone.  He leaves the lab by a window and goes out to get a   
   younger haircut, a flashy jacket and pants, and a sport car.  Oxley   
   has sent out his sexy secretary Lois (Marilyn Monroe) out to find   
   him.  She finds him buying the car and joins him.  He takes her out   
   in the car and soon plows it into a truck.  He leaves the car at a   
   body shop and takes Lois out roller-skating, swimming, and for a   
   general good time.  At then end of the afternoon they pick up the   
   car again.   
      
   Driving back to the lab Barnaby finds that he is reverting to his   
   older self as the effect wears off.  Again he wreaks the car.   
   Edwina comes to find him as the lab and finds him resting up.  He   
   tells her about his adventures.  She is a little suspicious of the   
   lipstick on Barnaby's face, but is trusting enough.  Barnaby tells   
   her he has discovered his formula and it is a success.  Barnaby is   
   ready to try the formula again that same evening, but Edwina is not   
   so trusting of her husband after all.  She gets to it first and   
   drinks it with water from the water cooler.  After a few minutes it   
   is her who is acting like a twenty-year-old.  She insists that   
   Barnaby take her to the hotel where they honeymooned.  They even   
   get the bridal suite.  There is a dance floor and a band playing in   
   the hotel and though it is now 11pm after a hard day they go out on   
   the dance floor where Edwina dances like Ginger Rogers.  From there   
   it is up to the room.   
      
   What starts like a romantic interlude is even more like the first   
   night of a honeymoon.  Suddenly Edwina gets cold feet and ends up   
   locking Barnaby outside the room in his pajamas (without the   
   drawstring) and without his glasses.  Barnaby ends up spending the   
   night in the hotel laundry.  Next morning Edwina is back to normal   
   and takes Barnaby home, still in his pajamas.  There Edwina's   
   lawyer and her mother, called by Edwina under the influence of the   
   formula, are waiting to castigate Barnaby.   
      
   Barnaby and Edwina return to the lab.  The whole experience has   
   been an eye-opener to him.  He is ready to destroy the formula.   
   But he still does not know the real formula is in the water cooler.   
   Edwina makes coffee using water cooler water and the two of them   
   are acting like children.  Meanwhile the Board of Directors of   
   Oxley Chemical knows the formula does not work and assume that   
   there is an ingredient missing in Barnaby's recipe.  However,   
   coaxing a non-existent ingredient from a young child is more   
   difficult than they had realized.  Together Barnaby and Edwina   
   wreak havoc through the neighborhood just acting like children.   
   Barnaby uses some neighborhood children to have revenge on his   
   wife's old boy friend.   
      
   There are the expected comical mix-ups including Edwina finding a   
   young child and thinking that it is Barnaby.  While the Board of   
   Directors of Oxley Chemical are waiting for the formula to wear off   
   the infant the board all drinks for the tainted water cooler and   
   are all reduced to children.  Finally all problems are resolved and   
   Barnaby concludes that you are young if you feel young.   
      
   If this is science fiction, and it is by virtue of a technicality,   
   it really is more the feel of a fantasy film.  I do not think   
   anybody writing the film seriously wanted to look at the human   
   effect of the aging process and the affect it would have on society   
   if it could be turned back.  If the film had been made ten years   
   earlier it would have used magic rather than science.   
      
   This is a film made for a few minutes diversion, but no thought of   
   any great depth.  It is the cinematic equivalent to playing   
   solitaire.  In spite of itself there is some serious content to the   
   film, though it is easily overlooked.  It suggests, somewhat   
   complacently that youth is not as good as we like to think.  Youth   
   is associated in this film with superficiality.  Basically it is a   
   film made for adults that pokes fun at the behavior of young   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)