La invasión de los monos

The last time Maurice Chevalier appeared before a movie camera was in this anemic comedy from the Magic Kingdom, Monkeys Go Home. Although he would contribute his voice for an animated Disney project, The Aristocats, this was his farewell to the cinema. Not the best film for France's ambassador to the world to go out on.

Chevalier is the village priest and confidante of young American Dean Jones who has inherited some land in the south of France and olive groves to go with it. I will say this for the film, I learned more about the growing and harvesting of the olives more than I ever expected. The problem is in the harvesting, but Dean's got that licked so he thinks with the training of four female chimpanzees to do the labor. The chimps do work cheap and that upsets a lot of plans including those of Clement Harrari the villain of our piece who is a real estate entrepreneur. Nice to see some of them are as unscrupulous in France as they are on this side of the pond. Harrari has as a henchman Bernard Worringer who is jealous because Yvette Mimieux likes the new American settler better than him.

Monkeys Go Home just doesn't quite get off the ground as a comedy, Dean Jones would have to wait until he found a Volkswagen with a soul before he scored big in Disney films. One bit I thought was a bit much for the Disney family studio. Yvette Mimieux believes in all work and no play is not good for the four female chimpanzees and buys a male. Now you don't have to have a degree in animal husbandry to figure out what's going to happen to your simian work force at that point. I'm surprised that bit got out at the Magic Kingdom.

Maurice Chevalier is usual dapper and charming self, I do so wish he had a better film to make his exit with.

Speaking as someone who has made an extensive study of the live-action Disney films of the 1960s-1970s I can say with some authority that this is truly one of the worst films ever released by Disney; almost unwatchable. With the charming Dean Jones and Yvette Mimieux at the center of a romantic plot this film has its moments (along with a delightful Maurice Chevalier, in what is a small role though curiously first-billed), but it is constantly derailed by the need to add monkey antics to the mix. Bringing in trained animals is a constant source of mirth in Disney live action gimmick comedies; it works in a Bubblegum Pop/ College Comedy setting (see the Disney film "The Monkeys Uncle") but against the backdrop of an American desperately trying to save an olive farm in Provence the entire film just fights against itself for a hundred minutes. Supporting characters rage about for no apparent reason, constantly entering and exiting the plot with no apparent motivation; and we are supposed to believe (and the plot hinges) on the concept that the entire village would be outraged that a man would use trained monkeys to pick olives for a harvest that last but three days a year instead of hiring locals is a stretch even by Disney standards (and this is the studio that convinced us a boy could turn into a dog and a car could have a mind of its own).

This was released in the year following Walt Disney's death. One might wonder if he would have chucked the entire thing rather than release this to theatres under the Disney name. It is truly shocking that this film made it to DVD before many other, better-remembered titles from the era.

I don't have any negative feelings towards this, yet I have nothing for it positively either - there's no real enjoyment or entertainment to be had.

'Monkeys, Go Home!' starts off intriguingly, but to me as soon as the monkeys turn up it loses all interest - which, as you can imagine, isn't great considering the title. It just sleepwalks through its run time.

Dean Jones (Hank), Maurice Chevalier (Sylvain) and Yvette Mimieux (Maria) all give decent performances, but unfortunately for them everything else about the film is just so average. As for the other cast members, Bernard Woringer (Marcel) & Clément Harari (Emile) are OK antagonists.

The score is solid while the locations look pretty good. However, sadly, I can't really majorly praise much else about this. Even if there are worse films out there, of course.

Residents of a French village attempt to stop an American from using monkeys in place of human workers on his newly-acquired olive farm. Poor screenplay from G.K. Wilkinson's book "The Monkeys" actually wants us to sympathize with the land-owner, who should perhaps be forced to do his own olive picking! Forgettable Disney product with the expected slapstick interludes is well-made, if not fresh. OK performances by Dean Jones, Yvette Mimieux and wily Maurice Chevalier (in his final film), but the argument at the center of the story isn't expanded upon, and the romance which sketchily develops between Dean and Yvette seems like an afterthought as well. Obviously, this was aimed at a younger crowd, but why not give kids something to think about as well as to laugh at? *1/2 from ****

I loved watching this as a kid. It was in two parts on Sunday nights on "The Wonderful World Of Disney" or whatever name the show was using at the time. And our country (New Zealand) only had B&W.

As a young lad, I was particularly impressed by Yvette Mimieux. Drop dead gorgeous.

Seeing it again a few years later, it didn't feel the same but the movie is still good light entertainment.

I guess all shows seem a lot better when you're young. Nevertheless, its better than some other stuff out there that I've revisited, hence the 7 rating.

If I see it out on DVD on a cheap label I plan to buy it.