From: ggggg9271@gmail.com   
      
   On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 4:30:32 AM UTC-10, Mark Leeper wrote:   
   > 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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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