ENF1001 Intro to Film Studies Manhattanville College Part 2 of Final/FA 2021 Dr. Lugowski
MAJOR ESSAYS/FINAL ANALYSIS SECTION
(130 pts, 4 questions; 35 points each for Questions 1 and 2; 30 points each for Questions 3 and 4)
Monkey Business (1952), like many mainstream films, indirectly or implicitly touches upon various ideological positions. Since this half of the term has focused on genre, stardom, authorship & ideology, the four little essays you will write apply our studies to these areas. Write a few paragraphs for each. Do NOT write any intros! Feel free to simply LIST as many points as you can if it helps you work more efficiently.
1. Romantic Comedy: How can we read Monkey Business as a romantic comedy? This film came out 7 years after the Allies had won WWII. It wasn’t the Depression of the 1930s or the war years of the 1940s, but the prosperous 1950s, with major shifts in the country’s demographics. Discuss the film in terms of its setting, story, style or other factors that are similar to or different from the “screwball” romantic comedies from the 1930s Depression & WWII years, or recent romantic comedies you know. Are there aspects of style (camerawork, music, sets, costumes, lighting) as well as issues such as social class, sex, gender, sexual difference, race & others you find relevant to this film and this genre? Briefly compare this film w/1 or 2 romantic comedies we’ve seen. **
2. Stardom and Performance: How can we read Monkey Business as a Ginger Rogers film? Rogers was 41 when she made this film. (Co-star Cary Grant was 48. An upcoming star, Marilyn Monroe, was 26.) Rogers had been in films for 23 years and a star for 20. How does her role, her style of acting, and her character’s place within the film compare with earlier comic, musical and dramatic material we have seen? What similarities & differences do you see in what she does, how she performs, and her star persona? What messages does her image convey? Are there progressive & liberal aspects, alongside conservative ones?
Be sure to briefly mention in your answer other Ginger Rogers films we have seen. ##
3. Authorship: Besides considering genre and stardom, we can read films many other ways. This is a 1950s film, like Rear Window & Imitation of Life. This is a 20th Century-Fox Studios film (and yes, it is like many Fox films from this era). We sometimes read films as the work of a director. How does this film compare in terms of story, visuals & themes with other Howard Hawks films? (Important side notes: We hear Hawks’ voice at the very start of Monkey Business, briefly instructing Cary Grant about when to begin. Is this meaningful? Also, one scene in this film almost directly copies a scene from an earlier Hawks film we saw. Do you see what it is?) @@
4. Ideology: Some films have a conservative sociopolitical agenda, while others are more liberal, activist, feminist or progressive in their perspectives. Hollywood, tending to play safely in terms of keeping society as it is, and aiming foremost to make money, indirectly reflects larger values and social struggles. Are some things in Monkey Business conservative? Do others possibly reflect a more progressive perspective? How does it represent people & issues? Do an ideological critique: What are this film’s themes? Its messages? Evaluate Monkey Business politically.
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JUST AS HELPFUL REMINDERS: The main characters in Monkey Business are
Dr. Barnaby Fulton, a research chemist (played by Cary Grant); his scientist colleagues are mostly unnamed
Edwina Fulton, his wife (played by Ginger Rogers); we also meet Edwina’s mother, though we don’t learn her name
Mr. Oxley, head of the company where Barnaby works (played by Charles Coburn)
Miss Laurel, secretary to Mr. Oxley (played by Marilyn Monroe)
Hank Entwistle, a friend to Barnaby and Edwina, and a former boyfriend of Edwina’s (played by Hugh Marlowe)
**JUST AS REMINDERS to help you answer #1):
Romantic comedies that we saw this semester (clips or full films) included:
His Girl Friday (1940)—a newspaper editor, Walter, tries to get his ex-wife Hildy, a smart writer, to work for him again as a reporter
The Major and the Minor (1942)—Maj. Kirby has two women fighting over him, including Susan, pretending she’s 12
Bringing Up Baby (1938)—Scientist David is pursued by rich, zany heiress Susan while looking for his missing bone
Vivacious Lady (1938)—(a clip) A nightclub singer from NYC fights her husband’s rich, snooty ex-girlfriend, and accidentally punches his conservative father, a college president
Bachelor Mother (1939)—(a clip) A single woman, a department store employee raising a baby that is not hers, goes to a New Year’s ball w/her boss & she masquerades as Swedish
It Happened One Night (1934)—(a clip) An unemployed news reporter helps a wealthy heiress on the run, but she proves better at hitch-hiking than he does
We also talked about a later romantic comedy, Pretty Woman (1990), where a (male) millionaire becomes romantically involved with a (female) prostitute and she has fun spending his money.
[We also saw certain romantic comedy elements in Rear Window (1954), The Player (1992) and even Get Out (2017).]
## REMINDERS to help you with #2): We saw the entirety of the first Ginger Rogers film listed; we saw clips of the others:
The Major and the Minor (1942)—A major at a military academy for boys is oddly attracted to a “girl” he thinks is 12, but she is actually an adult who disguised herself as younger in order to ride a train for half-fare.
42nd Street (1933)—A struggling chorus girl hopes to get work in a Broadway show by masquerading as a wealthy, monocle-wearing woman
Top Hat (1935)—A woman is romantically won over while ballroom dancing w/a man “cheek to cheek,” even though she mistakenly thinks he is married to a friend of hers
Vivacious Lady (1938)—A nightclub singer from the city fights her husband’s rich, snooty ex-girlfriend & accidentally punches his stuffy father, a college president
Bachelor Mother (1939)—A store clerk raising a baby that’s not hers goes to a New Year’s ball w/her boss & masquerades as Swedish since she has nothing in common w/the rich partygoers, but she gets in a very good insult
Kitty Foyle (1940)—A working woman rebels against her husband’s wealthy and snobbish Philadelphia relatives
Teenage Rebel (1956)—A middle-class woman tries to reconnect with the teenaged daughter she’s been separated from for years
@@ REMINDERS for question #3): We watched two Howard Hawks films this term and clips of another one:
His Girl Friday (1940)—a newspaper editor, Walter, tries to lure his ex-wife Hildy into working for him again as a reporter. He not only loves her, but she was also his best reporter.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)—a scientist, David, is pursued by a rich but zany heiress (Susan) while searching for his missing (dinosaur) bone
Red River (1948)—A cattle baron takes a boy whose family was killed into his community of tough cowboys, but after the boy grows up, he rebels against the older man/father figure.
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