Filmland Follies

                One day in the early '50s, Howard Hawks woke up and thought "What if I made Bringing Up Baby but with monkeys and an actual baby?" And just like that, Monkey Business was born.               Well, I don't know if that's how it really went. But in the realm of animal-driven screwball comedies, Monkey Business tends to be overshadowed. Maybe it wasn't as influential as, say, Bringing Up Baby , but it's sure a barrel of laughs (and monkeys). Just take a look at the cast:                I may be biased, but that's a pretty incredible cast. There's Cary Grant - arguably one of Old Hollywood's top screwball comedy stars (see above). There's Ginger Rogers - a top-notch comedic actress, with a knack for screwball as seen in films like Carefree . And there's Marilyn Monroe in an early film appearance! Don't be misled by the advertisements ...

                If you know me, you know I love movie costumes. I recently watched Royal Wedding for the first time, and boy, oh boy, did it have amazing costumes. The movie was originally planned as a Fred Astaire/Judy Garland vehicle to capitalize on their smash success in Easter Parade . Costume designer Helen Rose began making costumes for Judy, but when Judy had to drop out of the film, Rose transferred those designs over to up-and-coming star Jane Powell.               I had to do a fair bit of research to figure out who designed Royal Wedding 's costumes. There wasn't a designer credited in the film, and the Wikipedia page doesn't list one. Eventually, thanks to handy-dandy IMDB, I found one little bullet point hidden in the Cast and Crew section: "Helen Rose (uncredited)." Uncredited??!?! was my general reaction to that. Helen Rose was an icon of costume design! She did On The Town ...