The Marx Brothers
Marxology - MONKEY BUSINESS

Mikael Uhlin's Marxology @ marx-brothers.org

In 1931 Will B. Johnstone worked with Morrie Ryskind on an unused radio sketch for the Marxes when Groucho suggested a collaboration with S.J. Perelman for another proposed radio series. Perelman is quoted by Simon Louvish in Monkey Business - the Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers; "We put in a couple of enjoyable sessions that got nowhere, except for a misty notion that the Marxes might be characterized as stowaways aboard an ocean liner." Groucho told them that "this isn't any fly-by-night radio serial - it's our next picture!"

In addition to co-writing the script for Monkey Business, Will B. Johnstone also produced the cartoon for the pressbook. In many ways Monkey Business was a showcase for the Marx Brothers to re-use old routines. The basic plot is a developed version of their vaudeville show Home Again and the imitation of Maurice Chevalier and his song You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me from Paramount's The Big Pond is a revamped version of Theatrical Agency from On The Balcony and I'll Say She Is. Earlier in 1931, Paramount put together a film called The House That Shadows Built, in recognition of their 20th anniversary. To promote Monkey Business, the Marxes re-enacted the Theatrical Agency-scene in a more genuine way for this film.

Apart from reminiscences of the vaudevillian past, the basic storyline of Monkey Business also closely resembled The Seas Are Wet, a film idea from young Bert Granet about Marxian antics on a cruise ship. Granet also submitted another idea, College Daze, set on a campus. When Paramount first produced Monkey Business and then Horse Feathers without any acknowledgments or even the knowledge of Granet, he sued the film company. Paramount settled by hiring Granet as a screenwriter alongside Arthur Sheekman on a Bing Crosby picture. Later in life Granet and his wife Charlotte became two of Groucho's closest friends.

Marxonian Marie Sunny has sent me the link to an early draft of the Monkey Business screenplay. Marie added that a script company was selling a reproduction of the screenplay a few years ago and that a hard copy is available through interlibrary loan in the U.S.