Stubs - The Mad Miss Manton

The Mad Miss Manton (1938) Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene. Directed by Leigh Jason. Screenplay by Philip G. Epstein. Produced by P. J. Wolfson. Run Time: 80 Minutes. USA. Black and White. Screwball Comedy, Mystery

To begin with, if you’re a true-believer that fur is murder, then you should skip this film and this review. The film takes place at a time when that was not the concept and rich women, which this film is also full of, wore fur coats as part of their regular wardrobe. You can’t revisionist a movie, so the furs are there for all to see. So, last chance if you’re going to be bothered.

Okay, you’ve been warned!

By the late 1930s, Barbara Stanwyck was already a big star, having appeared in Night Nurse (1931), Baby Face (1933) and Stella Dallas (1937). But she was not RKO's first choice to play the lead in the film. They originally wanted Irene Dunne or Kathrine Hepburn. The latter turned it down, having only recently appearing in another Screwball comedy, Bringing Up Baby (1938), a film that didn’t really do all that well at the box office and wasn’t anxious to make another one. Stanwyck, who had a non-exclusive deal with RKO, was already on suspension there and made the film to fulfill her requirements.

Henry Fonda, a stage actor, had only been in films since 1935’s The Farmer Takes a Wife. Up until now, his best-known film may have been Jezebel (1938), in which he played opposite Bette Davis. At this point in his career, his best-known films were still in front of him. RKO got Fonda on loan from Walter Wagner, the producer he was under contract to in Hollywood.

With a screenplay by Philip G. Epstein, who would later co-write Casablanca (1942), the film went into production on July 8, 1938, and be completed on August 17. The exterior New York scenes were shot at the Columbia Ranch in Burbank, CA, which meant the women would be running around in furs in 100-degree temperatures.

The first time we meet Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) is when she gets home at three in the morning. The doorman for her building is waiting for her with her dogs that she wants to take for a walk. While they’re near a Subway construction site, Manton hears the door on a townhouse nearby and sees someone she knows, Ronnie Belden (William Corson), running towards a car and speeding away.

Melsa knows the house and curious as to what Ronnie was running from, Melsa ties up her dogs and goes up the stairs to investigate for herself. The lights are out and there doesn’t seem to be anyone inside. On the floor, she finds a diamond pendant, which she picks up and puts in the pocket of the cloak she’s wearing. In an inner room, she finds the body of George Lane, one of the owners, lying on the floor.

Still in her costume. Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) brings the police to the crime scene.

Frightened, she runs from the room, but her cloak gets caught in the door. She struggles but decides to leave it. Underneath, it is revealed she’s wearing a Bo-peep sort of costume, left over from the party she had attended earlier. Running down to a call box, she summons the police. Led by 

Lieutenant Mike Brent (Sam Levene), the police arrive, but don’t believe her at first; Melsa has a reputation that precedes her. They follow her back to the building, but there is no cloak and no body.

Melsa is part of a group of similar women, which The Morning Clarion dubs "Park Avenue Pranksters”. The editor of the paper, Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), has no patience for their antics and the paper publishes an editorial referring to the events as a hoax and assailing the group for their antics, feeling there is no place for them during the Depression. When she enters Peter’s office, she slaps the first man she sees, Peter’s Secretary (Vinton Hayworth), before asking if he’s Peter. When he answers “No” she slaps Peter, who slaps her back, “To complete the circle.” But Melsa is not through as Mr. Spengler, the Process Server (Irving Bacon), serves notice that she is filing a $1 million libel lawsuit against him and the paper.

Melsa and her fur-wearing band of Pranksters.

That evening, much to the chagrin of her maid Hilda (Hattie McDaniels), Melsa brings together her seven society girlfriends, the members of the Pranksters: Helen Frayne (Frances Mercer), Dora Fenton (Catherine O'Quinn), Gloria Hamilton (Kay Sutton), Lee Wilson (Ann Evers), Pat James (Whitney Bourne), Myra Frost (Linda Terry) and Kit Beverly (Vicki Lester). All are fur-clad, which is sort of their uniform throughout the film.

They decide that in order to save their reputations, they have to help Melsa out and go to investigate the alleged crime scene. But as they’re leaving, they find Melsa’s cloak stabbed into the front door with a knife and a note of warning.

The girls search the crime scene before Peter shows up.

But the girls continue with their mission. At the scene of the crime, one of them thinks she finds something, which doesn’t turn out to be anything.

Helen Frayne: Look! I found a bloodstain!

Dora Fenton: How can that be blood, it's blue!

Gloria Hamilton: Maybe he shot Mrs. Astor.

Peter shows up there as well, but the Pranksters attack him, tying him up and putting a gag in his mouth before they leave him there.

Next, the group goes to Ronnie Belden’s. But once again, there doesn’t seem to be anyone home. Melsa does recover the jeweled broach and they find a match for the knife in Melsa’s door in Ronnie’s kitchen, leading them to suspect he is behind the murder. They decide to leave, but Pat, who is hungry, refuses to go until she finds something to eat. She’s already cut the bread she intends to use and when she goes to the icebox she doesn’t find food, but rather Belden’s body, which has been stuffed in there.

They take Ronnie Belden's body out of the icebox and to Peter's couch.

To prove her point, Melsa and her gang take Belden’s body back to Peter’s office, where they leave it. Lt. Brent interrogates her about the body at the Clarion, that is until Peter calls her attorney. But during interrogation, Melsa admits to having the broach, a detail that Brent doesn’t let pass. As soon as she and her cohorts are outside the Clarion, he arrests her for their possession. He plans to take her downtown using Ronnie’s car and tells her to sit in the rumble seat. That’s where they discover George Lane’s body, which has been stuffed in there.

Peter Ames (Henry Fonda) and Lieutenant Mike Brent (Sam Levene) are outplayed by Melsa.

George was supposedly out of town for the past week. His wife is, of course, a suspect, but no one has seen her since the day of the murder. The Pranksters decide to descend on the charity ball the new widow is also co-sponsoring, as do Brent and Peter. The latter even goes to Melsa’s apartment with hopes of accompanying her. He insists on going in, even after Hilda follows her boss’ instructions and dumps a vase of water on him. But Melsa is adamant about going with her own date.

Hilda (Hattie McDaniels) follows orders and throws water into Peter's face.

But at the party, she sees Brent and Peter talking and tries her best to nonchalantly eavesdrop as they discuss Lane’s life insurance policy. To confuse things, his wife Sheila is not the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, his business partner Mr. Thomas is and the latter is going broke.

Melsa decides to investigate further, so she grabs fellow prankster Helen and sneaks over to Lane's brokerage firm. But Peter is already there and he’s brought with him a professional safecracker. In the company safe, they find incriminating papers about Sheila's first husband, criminal Eddie Norris (Stanley Ridges), who then shows up with a gun. Peter manages to overwhelm Eddie and the police take him into custody.

But Eddie’s girlfriend, Frances Glesk (Penny Singleton), comes to see Melsa and tells her that Eddie loves her and provides him an alibi, even though she claims it’s also enough to get him convicted. They were at a hockey game together at Madison Square Garden on the night of the Lane murder and were only separated for a ten-minute intermission, which she fears would be construed as enough time to have committed the murder of George Lane. The Pranksters agree to help, but before they can leave, Peter comes over to celebrate. He’s gotten a raise of $25 for catching a murderer and wants to share his new bounty with Melsa. When Frances tries to confront Peter, Melsa intercepts and introduces her as Doris’ out of town cousin.

Melsa does her best to get Peter out of the apartment, but no sooner has the door closed behind him then he comes back inside to use the phone. He calls to talk to Lt. Brent having figured out that Frances is not a cousin. But the girls unplug the phone and then gang up on him. They knock him down and then tie him up in Melsa’s bed. Before they leave, Melsa takes his pants.

For a second time, Peter gets tied up by Melsa and her friends.

The Pranksters then try to see if it’s possible to get from the Madison Square Garden to Lane’s townhouse. They try all available means of transportation, but cannot make it back and forth in under ten minutes.

Melsa, as a way of getting back at Peter, gives the story to a rival paper, the New York Star, whose editor (Paul Everton) offers her a job as a reporter if she ever wants one. But Melsa is in a hurry to get down to the District Attorney’s office to stop the injustice she sees is about to happen.

When she gets there, Eddie is already inside, but the District Attorney’s secretary (Grady Sutton) refuses to let her in. She manages, unbeknownst to him, to pin a copy of the Star’s front page to the back of his suit jacket, so when he goes in to deliver a file, Brent notices the paper, while Eddie tells them that he’s gone straight after getting out of prison and is working on the new subway project.

Melsa goes to the DA's office with evidence she thinks will free Eddie. The DA (Robert
Middlemass) does not look amused. Neither does his secretary (Grady Sutton).

Peter is not as upset about the disruption as the District Attorney (Robert Middlemass) or Brent only that she gave it to a rival paper and could cost him his job. But as much as Peter might be upset with her, he realizes that he’s in love with her as well.

Three of the Pranksters wait for their marching orders from Melsa.

Next Melsa brings together her Pranksters to search for Sheila Lane, who hasn’t been seen since her husband’s murder. They have already determined that Sheila uses a particular hair color to maintain her red hair, so they fan out to look for her; find the hair color and you’ll find the woman. The meeting is broken up when Hilda comes in to turn down Melsa’s bed for the night. But while she’s preparing the bed, the phone rings and Bat Regan (Paul Guilfoyle) tells Hilda to tell Melsa to stop her investigation.

Hilda calls the Clarion to tell Peter what happened and even though his publisher is telling him his place is behind his desk, Peter rushes over to Melsa’s. Even though she doesn’t want him to, he decides to stay the night to watch her. He tries to give Hilda a gun, but she runs off.

Melsa makes smoking in bed look glamorous.

While she’s lying in bed, Melsa asks for a cigarette and she and Peter talk about his past love when he was five and their shared fear of heights. He confesses to her that he’s worried about her and they come back to their impasse when he asks who is threatening her. She tries to kick him out when one of the Pranksters call, having found Sheila, who is staying at the Hotel Ashton under the name Sharon Lester. She tries to go meet her down on the street, but Peter follows her down, telling her not to go out before the police arrive. Just as they exit onto the sidewalk, Lt. Brent arrives. But that doesn’t stop Bat from taking pot shots at her from a moving car, though Peter is the one who gets shot. Brent returns fire, killing the driver and crashing the car. Bat is arrested. They find money that Bat threw out of the car, money he got from Lane. He claims it was won gambling, but Brent suspects it was blackmail.

Peter is hospitalized, though his condition is not considered life-threatening. In fact, he is given a steak dinner while he’s in bed. Melsa comes to visit him and Brent tells him to play up his condition in hopes of getting more information out of her. Brent hides the tray with the steak under the bed and Peter does his best to sound like he’s on death’s door.

Peter pretends to be dying so he and Brent can get information from her.

Melsa, at first, falls for it, telling them Bat took a shot at her because they were looking for Sheila Lane. She tells Brent where Sheila is staying and her aka. Brent runs out to call for backup. Only when Melsa sits down does she see the tray of food under the bed. She then picks up the fork from the plate and pretends that there is more that she didn’t tell Brent.

Melsa Manton: Remember when I went into Ronnie Beldon's apartment?

Peter Ames: Yes dear.

Melsa Manton: When I went into the bathroom, I found something.

Peter Ames: In the bathroom?

Melsa Manton: Yes, floating around in a foot of water in the bathtub.

Peter Ames: Louder, dear, I can hardly hear you.

Melsa Manton: [ominously] I'll come closer.

Peter Ames: Tell me dear, what was it?

Melsa Manton: [yelling] The Normandie, you black-hearted faker, in full sail!

She then stabs him in the leg with the fork.

At police headquarters, Brent interrogates Sheila Lane. She tells him that she turned to Bat, a man she had worked for and he gave her money and put her up. She admits to having an affair with Ronnie, which kept him from going to the police when he found the body. She had gone there, too, which is why her brooch was there. Ronnie must have taken the body while Melsa was calling the police, but he was killed before he could dispose of it. Brent accuses Sheila of helping Ronnie kill her husband and then killing him.

After Sheila is taken to jail, Brent calls Melsa and Peter into his office with a proposition. Brent will release Sheila from custody if Melsa will agree to be a decoy. They’ll plant a story about her finding new evidence hoping it would bring out the real killer. Peter would be with her in public and there would be police around. She reluctantly agrees. We watch as all of the suspects read the paper.

Peter takes Melsa to a restaurant where the police are undercover.

They go out to an Argentinian-themed restaurant. There is a heavy police presence, including the doorman, the waiter and a couple of the musicians in the club’s band. They dance, with Peter holding her too close at first and then her holding onto him for protection. Despite the police, a gun sticks out between some curtains and a shot is fired at their table. No one is hit and the assailant escapes. The only evidence left behind is a piece of tar paper, which Melsa recognizes. Excusing herself, she calls for the Pranksters to meet in her apartment and then escapes through a window.

The waiter is also an undercover police officer.

Instead of going home, Melsa goes back to the subway construction site, where there are rolls of tar paper. She ventures down inside where she sees a man who appears to be holding a gun. But the gun turns out to be his pipe and the man turns out to be the Subway Watchmen (John Qualen). She bluffs that she’s a stockholder. She asks him about an electric handcar on the track and he admits that it could go to Madison Square Garden in ten minutes.

Turns out Eddie (Stanley Ridges) isn't as innocent as Melsa thought.

When she gets back to her apartment, Eddie is waiting for her and pushes his way into her apartment. He tries to convince her not to be frightened. She tries to pretend she’s not and that she likes him and that he helped her girlfriend Frances. But Eddie says Frances is only a friend and that the only woman he really ever loved was Sheila. He recalls how he would think about her while he was in prison, but he was still happy she had married well. But he heard that Lane used to beat her and that he wanted to kill him as a result. Ronnie had seen him, so Eddie had to kill him too. He then tells her that he’ll have to kill her.

Lt. Brent and the Pranksters are there to stop Eddie from leaving.

The phone rings and he lets her answer so Hilda won’t come in. It’s Peter calling to check on her. After the call, Eddie tries to escort her out when Peter comes in, wanting to hear her say she loves him again. Peter doesn’t know what’s going on until she fills him in. He takes them both hostage, but down in the lobby, Brent and his men are waiting for them. At that moment, the Pranksters arrive in force. There is a standoff, but a police sharpshooter guns Eddie down.

Peter and Melsa arrange to get married right away, which has Brent calling for bicarbonate of soda.

Released on October 21, 1938, the film was not a huge success by major studio standards of the day, 

though it did make a profit of $88,000.

The idea of mixing comedy and mystery had been around since 1930's Ghost Parade and was pretty well-established by The Thin Man (1934) and its subsequent sequels, so this film wasn’t really breaking new ground. That doesn’t mean that it is not funny on its own.

A lot of the credit for the success of The Mad Miss Manton has to go to Julius Epstein’s screenplay, which is filled with a lot of very clever lines of dialogue and keeps the atmosphere very light throughout, even during what might be darker moments in a more serious take. There are moments when a little bit of the time in which the film was made comes through. While no one mentions Nazis, which were already in control in Germany, there are a couple of references to communism and not in a good way.

Plot points come along as fast as the dialogue with characters being introduced and sometimes discarded at a lightning pace. There is a lot to keep track of so the film does demand the viewer to pay attention.

One of the actresses with some of the better lines was Hattie McDaniel’s Hilda. Say what you may about racism during the 1930s, Hilda was free to speak her mind to her boss, Melsa. They had a very interesting relationship, part maid, part mother, part confidant, you get the impression that there wasn’t anything Hilda wouldn’t do for Melsa if asked, even throwing water on Peter when he comes calling. McDaniel was a prominent black actress of the time, even though they were mostly subservient roles to white bosses. She would be the first Black actress to win an acting Academy Award for her role as Mammy in Gone with The Wind (1939).

The leads, Stanwyck and Fonda, are both very good in their roles; in fact, it is hard to think of any films that either was bad in, though not every film either was in would be considered great or a classic. They seem to have a fairly good chemistry, though they would only make two more films together, The Lady Eve (1941) and You Belong to Me (1941), which were both romantic comedies, though The Lady Eve, like The Mad Miss Manton, was also a Screwball comedy.

Stanwyck and her Pranksters were modern women, in that they seemed to call their own shots. Oh, there were men around, but these women were not controlled by them. They do have the wealth to maintain themselves. There is a certain hive mentality at work, but they seem to be looking for a good time on their own terms. Stanwyck is a true star and vivacious on the screen. You want to watch her and it is like she wants you watching as well.

Fonda’s character is a little more generic. A young man on the rise, a newspaper editor who, at the beginning at least, seems a little idealized. He finds the Pranksters, given the state of the world around them, to be quite frivolous. Even falling in love doesn’t change his attitude, though, in the end, he seems to be willing to drop his worldview for love and her money.

Another actor that always seems to give a good performance and does here as well is Sam Levene who plays Lt. Brent, the often-frustrated detective investigating the murders. While Brent is always jumping to the wrong conclusions, Levene does so with a certain comedic flair. Levene who split his time between Broadway and Hollywood appeared in such films as Golden Boy (1939); Shadow of the Thin Man (1941); The Killers (1946); Brute Force (1947); Crossfire (1947) and ...And Justice for All (1979).

Eyes of a killer. 

I would be remiss in not mentioning Stanley Ridges, who plays Eddie Norris. He is a true psychotic, who loves to kill but still feels a little odd about the thought of killing Melsa, though he has every intention of doing it. Not the sort of character you see so well-defined in a comedy.

The Mad Miss Manton reminded me of another Stanwyck film, Witness to Murder (1954). In this film, Stanwyck plays a shop girl, or rather woman, who looks out her apartment window one night and sees a neighbor Albert Richter (George Sanders) kill a woman. Like Mad Miss Manton, when the police arrive, there is no body and no one believes her. She does find an ally in Police Lt. Lawrence Mathews (Gary Merrill). While romance is not so assured, the murderer is eventually captured. But rather than a comedic touch, the film takes a much more serious look at its subject matter.

The Mad Miss Manton is not a well-known film, but it is one that should you have a chance to watch it, you should take it. Like all screwball comedies, you have to be prepared for the dialogue to come fast, but your attention will be rewarded.

Stubs - Monkey Business (1952)

Monkey Business (1952) Starring: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Marlowe Directed by Howard Hawks. Produced by Sol C. Siegel.  Screenplay by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond. Run Time: 97 minutes. U.S. Black and White. Screwball Comedy

Sometimes it seems that Hollywood becomes derivative, telling the same stories over and over again, rebooting, retelling and making sequels of the same story, whether it’s Spider-Man or Batman or the Fantastic Four or the Pirates of the Caribbean. The excuse is the cost of making big budget films. Studios are cautious, if unwilling, to spend large amounts of money on untried stories, rather hoping that the tried and true will bring audiences in for more of the same.

Of course, this retelling of stories is nothing really new. Hollywood has always been making films like other films that were popular. In the case of Hollywood during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, the assembly line approach sometimes did not allow for great innovation and originality. Sometimes filmmakers were forced to rely on their own works for inspiration. In the case of Monkey Business (1952), I would not be the first to recall Hawks' earlier film Bringing Up Baby (1938) to which this has more than a passing resemblance, including the male lead.

Howard Hawks is one of the true greats of the Hollywood studio era, so you can’t blame him for borrowing from himself. Originally called Darling, I’m Growing Younger, the film was not going to star Grant, with whom Hawks had already worked four times, but rather Danny Kaye and with Ava Gardner instead of Marilyn Monroe.

But casting weren’t the only changes. The original screenplay was rejected on February 6, 1952 by the Breen Office stating: "the reason for this unacceptability lies in the fact 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."  Sex was a definite no-no under the Production Code, which was definitely being enforced at the time. Hawks and producer Sol C. Siegel met with the PCA and agreed to make changes, including changing formula name from “Cupidone" to a "pseudo-scientific type of vitamin," and toning down Oliver Oxly’s sexual interest in Lois Laurel.

The changes must have not been too severe, since the PCA approved the amended screenplay and production began on March 5 and continued until late April, 1952. The film would have its opening five months later on September 3, 1952.

The film begins with Cary Grant opening the front door of a house and being told by an off-screen Howard Hawks "Not yet, Cary” several times; an obvious breaking of the fourth wall, not common at that time.

After the sufficient credits have run and the film actually starts, Cary is now Barnaby Fulton, an absent-minded scientist who can’t help but think about his work. He is developing a formula he hopes will reverse the aging process. He is so lost in thought about it, that even after his wife, Edwina (Ginger Rogers), gives him exact directions on locking up the house, so they can leave, he still gets it wrong, ending up inside rather than out.

Barnaby Fulton (Cary Grant) would rather stay home and think
than go to a party with his wife Edwina (Ginger Rogers).

After more than one false start, Edwina gives up and decides that instead of going out to a party, they’ll stay at home so Barnaby can keep thinking. Edwina slips off her dress (off camera, of course), puts on a house coat and starts to make them eggs for dinner.

Hank Entwhistle (Hugh Marlowe), a family friend and lawyer, comes over to encourage them to go the party. He tells Edwina that if she had married him she wouldn’t have to stay home and cook. It is about then that Barnaby realizes Edwina’s backside, clothed in only undergarments, is visible. In the first scene that is reminiscent of Bringing Up Baby, Barnaby covers her up, the same way David (Grant) covers up Susan (Katherine Hepburn) when her dress gets torn. In this case, he puts an apron on her backwards. Hank takes some convincing, but he does finally leave.

When Edwina serves Barnaby soup, his mouth gets burned, which gives him an idea that he takes with him to the office the next day, using heat to encourage the absorption of the formula. He arrives at Oxly Chemical Factory, where he works, and is immediately summoned to President Oliver Oxly’s (Charles Coburn) office for an update on the formula Oxly is anxious to exploit, already having worked up an ad campaign for what he calls B-4.

Barnaby's boss at the plant is Oliver Oxly (Charles Coburn). His
secretary is the curvaceous Lois Laurel (Marilyn Monroe).

While Barnaby waits to see Oxly, Lois Laurel (Marilyn Monroe), Oxly’s curvaceous secretary, shows him the hosiery his acetate formula had led to and her leg on which they cover. Oxly is not amused when he walks in on the tableaux.

But Oxly is more interested in money and brings Barnaby into his office. But they are quickly called away to the lab, where one of the older monkeys they are experimenting the formula on, the 84-year-old equivalent Rudolph, is bounding around like a youngster. Everyone is fooled until Barnaby discovers that the monkey’s numbers have been accidentally switched and the much younger Esther is wearing Rudolph’s number.

Once the mistake has been noticed and Esther is back in her unlocked cage, Barnaby begins to work on his idea, but when he leaves the laboratory, Esther frees herself and, copying Barnaby’s actions, mixes a batch of the ingredients that he uses in his formula. Hearing him return, Esther pours her chemicals into the water cooler, after which Barnaby mixes his own batch.

Esther the monkey mimics Barnaby's actions and mixes up her own batch of chemicals.

Against the wishes of his assistant, Dr. Jerome Lenton (Henri Letondal), Barnaby swallows his version. The bitter taste forces him to get some water from the cooler, soon after which Barnaby notices that the bursitis he suffers from no longer hurts and he no longer needs his thick glasses to see.

Barnaby feels so good and youthful that he leaves the laboratory. Wanting a more youthful look, he gets a then popular crew cut. Next he changes his appearance by buying a loud sports coat. His last stop is a car dealership where he trades in his sedan for a sports car, a 1950 MG TD.

Miss Laurel has been sent to find him and shows up just as he is concluding the purchase of the car. He asks her if she wants to go for a ride. Miss Laurel, who has a crush on the older man, gladly accepts. While they race through the city, it is obvious that Miss Laurel is getting aroused by the speed, the danger they’re in and by him. But Barnaby gets distracted and can’t stop before he runs into a truck that blocks the street.

Barnaby and Laurel go for a drive in his new MG.

They take the car to the shop and are told it’ll be good as new by five o’clock. To kill time, the two go roller-skating and, after Barnaby falls, they go swimming. At the pool, Barnaby attempts a swan dive, but ends up doing a belly flop. But no one is watching him, but rather Miss Laurel in a one-piece.

She only have eyes for Barnaby, but everyone else has eyes on Lois in her one-piece.

After the car is fixed, Barnaby drives them back to Oxly. While they’re driving, she kisses him on the cheek, but pouts when she discovers that he’s married. Before they get back to the office, the formula starts to wear off. Barnaby’s eyesight starts to fade and he ultimately crashes the car into a chain-link fence.

When he returns to the lab, Barnaby falls asleep. By the time he awakens, Edwina, who has been called by a night watchman, has arrived. She’s not happy to hear about his haircut or by his antics, especially the lipstick on his cheek from Miss Laurel. Barnaby insists it was the formula and tries to reassure her that the kiss meant nothing to him.

Barnaby wants to retest the formula on himself, but Edwina has other plans, drinking the latest double strength batch, so her husband can observe her. Again she takes a glass of water after drinking the sour concoction. The formula starts to take effect when Oxly comes in to inquire about Barnaby’s progress. Edwina is overly playful, putting a goldfish down the side of Oxly’s pants.

Barnaby and Edwina get away and Edwina demands that they drive to the hotel where they spent their honeymoon. When they get to the hotel, Edwina wants to go dancing, eventually exhausting Barnaby. When they finally get back to the room, Edwina gets emotional, acting like a new bride and crying for her mother.

Their honeymoon reenactment doesn't come off as planned.

Barnaby tries to find out what’s going on with Edwina, but it quickly turns into a quarrel, in the middle of which Barnaby’s glasses fall off. When he pushes her gently away from them on the floor, she throws him out of the room. While the nearly blind Barnaby feels his way through the halls in his pajamas, missing the tie string, which has been caught in the room’s door, Edwina calls Hank. She tells him that Barnaby has brutalized her and she wants to file for divorce.

Meanwhile, Barnaby, who is looking for help, ends up going head first down the laundry chute and ends up in one of the large wheeled carts. The force of his entry sends the cart rolling straight into a wall on which poor Barnaby hits his head and passes out.

The next morning, Edwina has fully recovered from the formula and is checking out of the hotel, when Barnaby has been brought up from the laundry room by a couple of confused maids. He refuses to change, but rather just wants to go home.

When they arrive, they are set upon by a horde of reporters and Hank is inside waiting. Edwina realizes that she still very much loves Hank and wants to call off the divorce. But Barnaby, realizing the harm the formula does, and a little disheartened to have found out Edwina once kissed Hank, decides the best course of action is to destroy the formula.

Edwina goes with Barnaby to the lab and there, using the water from the cooler, she makes them a pot of coffee. After a couple of cups, both are acting like ten-year-olds.

Meanwhile, Oxly has heard about the success of the formula and has called an emergency meeting of the board to come up with an offer to Barnaby for the rights. When it’s pointed out that he made the formula while working for them, Oxly points out that there seems to be an ingredient or step missing as they can’t recreate it with the same results.

Barnaby is called in and enters with Edwina and a monkey between them. When they ask him how much he wants, he says a "zillion" dollars. When he lets slip his idea about adding heat, the board thinks they have the answer they need and Barnaby and Edwina escape.

The couple walks home, too young to drive, and while they do, Edwina starts to annoy the 10-year-old acting Barnaby, who is turning into a girl-hater. After getting into a fight and throwing paint on each other, he runs off to join real ten-year-olds, who are playing “Indian”. Edwina, meanwhile, goes home and calls Hank to complain again about Barnaby. She then takes a nap, which seems to be a side-effect of the formula.

As she sleeps, Barnaby puts on war paint and convinces his playmates to help him scalp Hank, whom he is still jealous about.

When Edwina awakens from her nap, she is once again her old self. But the neighbor’s baby, Johnny, has walked into their house and crawled in next to her. She mistakenly assumes the baby to be Barnaby on an overdose of the formula and dashes back to Oxly with the baby in her arms.

Edwina mistakes the neighbor's baby for Barnaby and rushes him back to Oxly.

Meanwhile, Barnaby and his friends succeed in capturing Hank, but instead of scalping him, cut his hair into a Mohawk.

Barnaby convinces the boys in the neighborhood to help his scalp Hank (Hugh Marlowe).

Back at Oxly, everyone thinks Johnny is Barnaby. Edwina puts the baby down on Barnaby’s couch, hoping that if he falls to sleep, the formula will wear off. Out in the lab, the men, including the Board of Directors, Oxly and Lenton, pace and when they’re thirsty, drink water from the cooler. Oxly orders the bitter-tasting water thrown out, but it’s too late to stop the formula from taking effect.

Still wearing warpaint, Barnaby returns to Oxly.

Barnaby shows up and climbs through the window of his office. When Edwina finds him, she realizes her mistake about Johnny. But when they go out to the outer laboratory, they find everyone, Oxly, the board members and the scientists acting like children. It is Lenton who finally deduces that Esther has concocted the formula. While Oxly is chasing Miss Laurel around the lab with a seltzer bottle, the Fultons leave.

Craziness ensues in the lab when everyone drinks the formula.

Three days later, there is a new Oxly contract ensuring Barnaby’s future with the firm. Barnaby tells Edwina that a person is old only when he forgets that he is young.

Hawks was somewhat disappointed by the film, thinking the premise was too unbelievable and that the film was not as funny as it could have been. Hawks was right, but the premise was

only the beginning of the problems. Monkey Business suffers from many ailments, one of which is a surprisingly lackluster screenplay given the talents of Ben Hecht and I.A.L. Diamond. Gags and characters seem to have been recycled from previous films, but what makes it all right at all is that Hawks is mostly stealing from himself.

The best line in the film is delivered about Monroe’s sex appeal. While it is best seen in context, I’ll try to set it up:

Early in the film, Barnaby and Oxly are in the latter’s office with Lois. There is a call waiting for Mr. Oxly and Lois is about to be dismissed.

Oliver Oxly: Oh, yes. Just a moment, Miss Laurel. Find someone to type this.

Lois Laurel: Oh, Mr. Oxly, can't I try again?

Oliver Oxly: No, it's very important. Better find somebody to type it for you.

Lois Laurel: Yes, sir.

As she walks to the door and closes it, both Barnaby and Oxly admire her swaying hips and backside.

As if to answer the unasked question of why he has her as his secretary, but won’t let her type his letters, Oxly turns to Barnaby and deadpans:

Oliver Oxly: Anybody can type a letter.

It’s too bad there’s not more laugh out loud lines like this one. Too much of the humor is based on adults acting like kids and mistaken identity. It doesn’t take much of either to get old.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bad Grant film, that is to say a bad performance by the actor. Even in this film, he is good, but his best scenes are with Marilyn Monroe and not Ginger Rogers. As stated before, his Barnaby Fulton feels like a redo of his Bringing Up Baby David character, so it’s sort of like seeing a photocopy of the original; close, but not as good. It’s too bad that Monkey Business would be his last film with Grant, with whom he’d made Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940) and I Was A Male War Bride (1949).

Ginger Rogers, whom I’ve already gone on record as loving, is not at her best here. In fact, I think she overacts the part. When she’s supposed to be twenty she comes off as being closer to ten. I sometimes think she’s trying too hard, which is bad when it shows. Like Grant, Rogers has played a similar character before, previously playing “young” in The Major and the Minor (1942) a decade earlier.

The film feels over long, especially with the back and forth between Barnaby and Edwina. While both Grant and Rogers are great movie stars, I don’t really get the sense that they have great chemistry together and the off again on again divorce seems a contrivance at best.

The best pairing in the film seems to be Grant with Monroe, but that looks more like a happy accident than the intent of the filmmakers. For all the star power of Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers, Monkey Business is often sold as one of Marilyn Monroe’s early films. In some ways, she steals the film, though her part is rather small, she is in a lot of scenes and is often the object of the attention of both Barnaby and Oxly, as well as any other men that might be around. It is the scenes with Grant that give a glimpse into Monroe’s comedic sensibilities mixed with her abundant sexuality.

So much has been written about Monroe that there is no point in getting too deep here. Simply put she is the iconic sex symbol. There have been many contemporary imitators, including Jayne Mansfield and Cleo Moore, but accept no substitute. Monroe was the sex kitten by which all others should be judged as inferior.

Marilyn Monroe is the iconic sex symbol.

While Grant and Rogers seem to be replaying character types from their long film careers, Monroe is at the beginning of hers and there is a real sense that she is bringing something new to the screen. While sex symbols were nothing new in Hollywood, there had never been one like Monroe since perhaps Jean Harlow in the 1930s.

If Monroe had lived longer, we might be looking at Monkey Business as a changing of the guard in Hollywood. However, Monroe would be dead in ten years, her last film being The Misfits (1961). Ginger Rogers’ last film would be Harlow (1965) and Grant’s would be Walk, Don’t Run (1966).

Still, Monroe is the real reason to watch this film, not the proven stars with top-billing. Not a great film, Monkey Business has its moments, but given the director, the writers and the actors involved in the project, it fails to deliver on all of its potential.

Stubs – His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday (1940) Starring: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy Directed by Howard Hawks. Produced by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Charles Lederer. Based on the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur as produced by Jed Harris (14 Aug 1928, New York). Run Time: 92 minutes. U.S. Black and White. Screwball Comedy, Comedy.

As we’ve discussed many times on this blog, rarely does Hollywood make a story better the second or third time (or fourth or fifth for that matter). That doesn’t mean there are not exceptions to the rule. As oft cited, The Maltese Falcon (1941) was the third time the book had been adapted to the screen.

The play The Front Page (1928), written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, was made into a movie in 1931, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien and was quite successful on all fronts. Nominated at the 4^th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Lewis Milestone) and Best Actor (Menjou), this first film adaptation must have been considered pretty good in its day. (I have not seen this version.)

And the film would be remade subsequently, again as The Front Page (1974), directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Again nothing to sneeze at, considering the talent involved. I remember seeing this and liking the film at the time.

But in between those two versions, The Front Page would get a twist and became a classic. Sometime in pre-production, director Howard Hawks was trying to prove that the Front Page contained the finest modern dialogue ever written, and he began to read the part of Walter and asked his secretary, a woman, to read Hildy's part. Liking what he was hearing, Hawks called Hecht and suggested changing Hildy's character to a woman; His Girl Friday was born.

Charles Lederer, who had written additional dialogue for the first adaptation, was given credit as the screenwriter for His Girl Friday. Most of the original dialogue and all of the characters' names were left the same, with the exception of Hildy's fiancé which was changed from Peggy Grant to Bruce Baldwin.

Casting the part of Hildy proved to be quite difficult as a number of actresses were considered. Hawks wanted Carole Lombard, whom he had directed in Twentieth Century (1934), but the cost of hiring Lombard as a freelancer proved to be far too expensive for Columbia to afford.

According to reports published in the Hollywood Reporter at the time, Irene Dunne was slated to play the role and production was postponed because she felt the role of Hildy was too small and insisted that the writers rewrite her part. Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Margaret Sullivan, and Ginger Rogers were all offered the role, but turned it down. Jean Arthur was offered the part, and was reportedly suspended by the studio when she refused to take it. Joan Crawford was reportedly also considered, before Hawks turned to Rosalind Russell.

Russell didn’t find out about the search until after she had accepted the part. Supposedly she found out about all the actresses who'd turned the part down while reading an article in the New York Times on the train ride to New York. Nothing like knowing you’re someone’s nth choice.

But Russell wasn’t happy with her part either. According to her autobiography, Life Is A Banquet, Russell thought her role did not have as many good lines as Grant's, so she hired her own writer to "punch up" her dialogue. With Hawks encouraging ad-libbing on the set, Russell was able to slip her writer's work into the movie.

The film opens with a written prologue: "It all happened in the "Dark Ages" of the newspaper game--when a reporter "getting the story" justified anything short of murder. Incidentally, you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press today. Ready? Well, once upon a time…”

Former reporter Hildegard “Hildy” Johnson (Rosalind Russell) returns to the newsroom at The Morning Post following her divorce from Walter Burns (Cary Grant), who happens to also be the paper’s editor. They haven’t seen each other for several months and Walter has been trying to win her back as his wife and as a reporter on the paper.

Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) makes what she thinks will be her last visit to The Morning Post newsroom.

Walter is engrossed by the impending execution of Earl Williams, a timid bookkeeper, sentenced to death for killing an African-American policeman. He wants to lure Hildy back and lies to her that his star reporter is preoccupied with his wife being pregnant. He tells Hildy that the paper needs her to cover the story.

But Hildy insists she’s through being a reporter; she’s engaged to an insurance man from Albany, Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), and will be leaving Chicago for good to be a wife and mother. Walter insists on meeting Bruce and invites them to lunch. At the restaurant, Walter learns that the couple are leaving, with Bruce’s mother, on the four o’clock train, so he has to act fast.

Walter Burns (Cary Grant) starts right in driving a wedge between Bruce
Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and Hildy.

The always scheming Walter convinces Bruce that only Hildy can write the story that will save an innocent man’s life. Hildy agrees to write the story on the condition that Walter buys a $100,000 life insurance policy from Bruce. Walter, of course, agrees and he goes back to the newspaper with Bruce for the medical exam. Meanwhile, Hildy goes to the press room at the county criminal building, where she meets with her cynical brethren of the press. They warn her that she’ll never be able to walk away from being a reporter.

Hildy makes herself at home in the Press room at the county criminal building.

After interviewing the befuddled Williams (John Qualen), Hildy meets Mollie Malloy (Helen Mack), the only person who has shown any compassion towards Williams. Her act of kindness has won her the contempt of the reporters in the room. Hildy takes pity on Mollie.

Hildy interviews Earl Williams (John Qualen).

But soon, Bruce telephones and tells Hildy he’s been arrested for stealing a watch. Hildy knows Walter has master-minded Bruce's arrest and leaves to bail Bruce out of jail. When she returns to the press room, she is more determined than ever to leave, but sounds of gunshots and the news that Williams has escaped force her reporter instincts to supplant her common sense. She calls Walter and tells him about Williams' escape and talks to Warden Cooley (Pat West) to get the rest of the story.

While Bruce waits in the cab for Hildy to write her story, Walter sends Evangeline (Marion Martin), a prostitute, to frame Bruce. Walter describes Bruce to Evangeline as "looking like that fellow in the movies, Ralph Bellamy."

Walter sends Evangeline (Marion Martin) to frame Bruce.

After bribing Cooley for his story with $450 of Bruce's money, Hildy calls Walter and demands repayment. In response, Walter sends his stooge Louis (Abner Biberman) to Hildy with $450 in counterfeit money. Soon after, Hildy receives another call from Bruce, who has been jailed for "mashing."

Meanwhile, Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell (Gene Lockhart) and the Mayor (Clarence Kolb) confer about their political fortunes. The Mayor heads a graft-ridden administration and needs the execution of Williams to deliver the black vote on election day. At that point, Joe Pettibone (Billy Gilbert) arrives from the Governor’s office with a reprieve for Williams. The two men try to bribe Pettibone into forgetting the reprieve.

Back at the press room, while Hildy is waiting for Louis to arrive with her money, Earl Williams climbs in through the window. Bruce calls at that moment; he is still waiting for Hildy to bail him out of jail. Hildy tells him to wait and then calls Walter to tell him that she has found Earl Williams.

As soon as Hildy gets off the phone, Mollie Malloy pounds on the press room door. When she sees Williams, she bursts into the room and when the reporters begin to file in, Hildy and Mollie hide Earl in a roll top desk belonging to one of the reporters, Roy V. Bensinger (Ernest Truex), who happens to fancy himself a poet.

Bruce’s mother, Mrs. Baldwin (Alma Kruger) enters the press room and begins to chide Hildy about foresaking Bruce for a murderer. The other reporters think something is up and start to ask questions. In order to divert them, Mollie jumps out the window. The reporters run out of the room to examine the extent of Mollie's injuries just as Walter and Louis arrive.

Mollie Malloy (Helen Mack) throws herself out the window to divert the reporters' attention.

Walter works out his scheme, but Mrs. Baldwin sees everything. In order to keep her quiet, Walter tells Louis to kidnap Mrs. Baldwin, which he does. Walter calls the newspaper and makes plans with his assistant editor, Duffy (Frank Orth), to transport the roll top desk back to the Post. While Hildy is typing up her account of capturing Williams, Bruce walks in demanding his money. He tells Hildy that he is leaving on the nine o'clock train. Hildy then hands Bruce the counterfeit bills Louis had delivered, of course, not knowing they’re fake. Bruce leaves before Hildy realizes he’s gone.

Bruce tries and fails to get Hildy to leave with him on the nine o'clock train.

She is still writing her story when a disheveled Louis enters and tells her and Walter that the cab he was in with Mrs. Baldwin was in an accident with a police car. He admits that he left Mrs. Baldwin at the scene of the wreck and ran for it.

Next, the sheriff and the other reporters return, and the sheriff begins to question Hildy about what she knows about Williams. Mrs. Baldwin returns and accuses Walter of having her kidnapped. The sheriff is anxious to find an excuse to arrest Walter, but he emphatically pleads his innocence, going so far as to pound on the desk, the sign they’d worked out with Williams that the coast is clear.

The arrest of Earl Williams.

Williams responds in code and with guns drawn, the sheriff opens the desk and finds the fugitive. The sheriff then handcuffs Walter and Hildy and threatens Walter, who responds that the "last man who did that to me was Archie Leech." (A reference, of course, to himself.)

The Sheriff (Gene Lockhart), on the phone, and The Mayor (Clarence Kolb)
 think they finally have the goods on Hildy and Walter,
who's paper has been at odds with their administration.

Just then, Pettibone, intent on doing his job, returns with Williams' reprieve much to the delight of Walter. The mayor knows he’s been caught and tries to whitewash over things and demands the sheriff release his good friends Walter and Hildy. As Walter advises Hildy to go after Bruce, Bruce calls and tells Hildy that he has been arrested for spending counterfeit money. Realizing that Walter has tricked her once again, Hildy breaks down and cries. She doesn’t want to go away with Bruce and would rather be with Walter. They plan to marry again and have a real honeymoon this time.

Joe Pettibone (Billy Gilbert) returns a second time with a reprieve for
Earl Williams, saving Walter and Hildy, as the Mayor looks on.

Walter calls his city editor, Duffy, to announce that he and Hildy are getting married and will spend their honeymoon at Niagara Falls. Duffy informs him that there is a strike in Albany, which is on the way, and Walter plans on covering the story. He wonders out loud if Bruce might be able to put them up as he and Hildy leave the court house. She is, of course, carrying her own luggage.

Cary Grant is a very versatile actor, there is so little that he can’t do on screen. He plays the scheming and manipulative editor, Walter Burns with his usual finesse. While this is not the greatest role he would ever play, it is certainly one of the funniest. Grant and Rosalind Russell make a good team, but he makes a good team with just about every woman he shares the screen with.

Russell more than holds her own with Grant, no doubt somewhat aided by lines from her ghostwriter. Despite the exhaustive search for a Hildy, it’s hard to imagine any other actress playing the part but Russell. While not manly by any means, Russell was never considered to be a sex symbol either. She is pretty enough to understand why men would be attracted to her, but she seems to have more going for her than looks alone.

Rosalind Russell started as a fashion model and a Broadway actress, before coming west as a contract player at Universal Pictures. But she didn’t feel like she got any respect and was able to get out of her contract. She found better success at MGM. Her breakthrough role was in the drama West Point of the Air (1935) opposite Robert Young. She began to be cast in roles originally intended for Myrna Loy. Her career would get a big boost in The Women (1939), which also established her reputation as a comedienne.

Throughout the rest of the forties and fifties, Russell would act in both comedies and dramas, receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Elektra (1947) and for the role she is most associated with, Auntie Mame (1958).

Her suitor in His Girl Friday, Ralph Bellamy, was used to playing second fiddle to Grant, having previously played opposite him in The Awful Truth (1937). In that film he lost Irene Dunne to Grant, just as he loses Russell to him here. His portrayal of Bruce is spot on. Bruce gets turned inside out and every which way by the faster thinking Walter Burns. Bellamy plays an affable man being taken advantage of as well as anyone could. You end up feeling sorry for him by the end, as he really does nothing wrong.

Bellamy made his film debut in The Secret Six (1931) and worked in film and television until 1990, when he appeared in Pretty Woman. Bellamy acted in a variety of genres, from comedies to dramas, horror and musicals. Other films he appeared in include: Boy Meets Girl (1938), Carefree (1938), Dance, Girl Dance (1940), The Wolf Man (1941), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Oh, God (1977) and Trading Places (1983). He also is known for playing President Franklin Roosevelt, first on stage in Sunrise at Campobello and then in the film version in 1960. He would later appear as FDR in two television mini-series, The Winds of War (1984) and War and Remembrance (1988).

Another actor who had shared screen time with Grant prior to His Girl Friday was Abner Biberman. While Abner seems to have been born to play Louis, he had been Grant’s nemesis Chota in Gunga Din (1939). A character actor, Biberman would appear in such films as Each Dawn I Die (1939), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Another Thin Man (1939), Captain Kidd (1945), Winchester ’73 (1950) and Viva Zapata! (1952). But there was more to Biberman as well. He wrote, directed and acted in The Golden Mistress (1954), an adventure film set in Haiti starring John Agar. He would later work in television directing on such series as Maverick (1957), 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Gunsmoke (1965).

Abner Biberman, at far right, as Louis, Walter's enforcer, in His Girl Friday.

Biberman plays Louis with a comedic toughness. He doesn’t attempt to get into the frenzied wordplay, but he still gives a solid performance.

The cast is full of character actors like Billy Gilbert as Pettibone, Clarence Kolb as the Mayor and Gene Lockhart as Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell, who play their parts with a great sense of comedic timing. Gilbert and Kolb both got their separate starts in Vaudeville, while Lockhart got his break on Broadway.

His Girl Friday is considered to be a Screwball Comedy. As discussed in our review of 

Bringing Up Baby (1938), the genre is characterized by a female that dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged. His Girl Friday does one better, by taking what had originally been a male role and casting it with a woman. While Russell’s Hildy is not masculine, per se, she is working in what had been, at the time, a male dominated profession, news reporter. The hilarious word play ends with marriage, but not necessarily the promise of happiness as by the end Walter is already falling back into his old patterns.

One of the things I like best about the film is that despite the fast talking, the story is still quite easy to follow. The film takes you along for a fast trip, but it doesn’t throw you from the train on the curves. While the film was released in 1940, it is an honorable 1939 film, having been shot between September 27^th and November 21^st of that fabled year. Definitely some of the creative magic from that year rubbed off on this production. If you have never seen this movie, you should and if you’re like me you’ll find yourself watching it anytime it’s on.