Film
Bedtime for Bonzo
- Comedy
- Light-hearted
A 1951 comedy in which Ronald Reagan plays a college professor who adopts a chimpanzee to prove that nurture, not nature, shapes behavior—and wreaks cheerful havoc on his love life and career in the process. It's a creature-comedy with genuine charm, silly set pieces, and the odd moment of real sweetness. For anyone who likes mid-century screwball energy and doesn't mind that the 'science' is bonkers.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy old-fashioned screwball comedy where a sober academic's carefully ordered life comes apart over a ridiculous premise, and you don't mind the gags being broad and the morals being very plainly stated.
Skip it if you want sharp modern comic timing or a film that trusts you to read between the lines, since its jokes are big, its sentiment is laid on thick, and its cheerfully dated ideas about nature and nurture show their age.
What it asks of you: Under 85 minutes, it moves briskly and stays light throughout, asking only that you sit back and accept a chimpanzee in a college household without much fuss.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Monkey Business1952
Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers navigate similar territory—a rejuvenating serum, a chimp, and escalating chaos—with impeccable timing and that effortless 1950s sophistication that makes the absurd feel inevitable.
But The sci-fi premise creaks badly in places, and the humor depends entirely on your tolerance for slapstick centered on animal antics and regressing adults.
Bringing Up Baby1938
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and a leopard on the loose. This is the template for how to make chaos feel graceful—every pratfall lands, every joke builds on the last, pure screwball perfection.
But Seventy-five minutes of frenetic energy with no real plot to slow it down; exhausting if you prefer quieter comedy, and some visual gags have aged unevenly.
It Happened One Night1934
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable sparring on a road trip, inventing the romantic-comedy template as they go. Every scene crackles with intelligence and genuine chemistry beneath the laughs.
But The pacing is slow by modern standards, and some of the gender-dynamics humor lands differently now than it did in 1934—you have to meet it where it is.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bedtime for Bonzo
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Elmer Gantry1960
Both use charm and a central performer's magnetism to explore what happens when appearance and reality split; Bonzo's comedy hides the same question about authenticity that Elmer Gantry answers with venom.
Burt Lancaster as a charismatic con man using charm and nonsense to manipulate people, followed by a downfall that matters. It swallows Bonzo's premise whole—that slickness and personality can be a lie—and treats it seriously.
But It's almost two hours of watching a terrible man manipulate good people, and the film never softens into sentiment or humor about it. This is a sermon about hypocrisy, not a romp.
More like this (8)
The Philadelphia Story1940
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart in a comedy that understands that the best jokes come from character and that romance works best when there's real stakes beneath the sparkle.
But At 112 minutes it moves at a deliberate pace, and the whole thing hinges on your patience with sophisticated banter over plot momentum.
Roman Holiday1953
Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn's charm alone would sustain this, but the film earns your investment in a princess-escapes-protocol story that finds genuine emotion inside the romance.
But It's more sentimental than comedic, and the ending is a downer that some will find beautiful and others will find frustratingly sad.
Singin' in the Rain1952
Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds in a backstage musical about old Hollywood that finds joy in performance itself. Every scene is a masterclass in how to make entertainment feel alive and fun.
But If musicals aren't your thing, all the dancing and production numbers will feel like interruptions rather than the whole point.
His Girl Friday1940
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trade barbs at machine-gun speed in a newspaper comedy where both leads are sharp and neither needs rescuing. The dialogue is a joy to listen to even when the plot wears thin.
But The fast, overlapping dialogue can be hard to track, and the screwball energy occasionally runs away from the heart of the story.
Father of the Bride1950
Spencer Tracy, as a father watching his daughter get married, finds comedy in the universal collision of sentiment and chaos. It's warm without being saccharine, funny without being cruel.
But The whole thing is a bit thin—it's 93 minutes of comic variations on one theme, so if that theme doesn't charm you, there's not much else to grab onto.
Arsenic and Old Lace1944
Cary Grant and two murderous aunts in a dark farce that proves comedy can thrive on morbid premises. Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff round out the cast of delicious weirdos.
But The tone wobbles between light comedy and genuinely sinister, and some viewers will find it either too dark or not dark enough, depending on what you came for.
Mighty Joe Young1949
Bonzo the chimp and Joe the ape are both animals caught between worlds—not pets, not wildlife, not really actors in the films—and both films explore what it means to use an animal to prove a human point.
A giant ape who's gentle and kind, brought to America, misunderstood and endangered by the very people who want to exploit him. The stop-motion effects are stunning, and the film has real pathos beneath its adventure-movie structure.
But The pacing drags in the middle, the plot is thin, and the 'misunderstood creature' story can feel heavy-handed if you're not in the mood for sentiment over sense.
The Egg and I1947
Both films use a wild-card element—a chimp here, a farming life there—to test whether a romantic couple's theories about the world match reality; both suggest that life is messier and funnier than any theory about it.
Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray navigate marriage, farming, and mutual incomprehension in the Pacific Northwest, and the film finds humor in the gap between what people hope marriage will be and what it actually is.
But It's a domestic comedy about real disappointment, so there are no magical fixes; some viewers will find it too melancholy for a comedy, and the chicken-farming subplot goes nowhere fast.
People
Cast
Ronald ReaganProfessor Peter Boyd
Diana LynnJane
Walter SlezakProfessor Hans Neumann- Lucille BarkleyValerie Tillinghast
Jesse WhiteBabcock
Herbert HeyesDean Tillinghast
Herb VigranLt. Daggett
Harry TylerKnucksy- Edward ClarkFosdick (as Ed Clark)
Edward GarganPoliceman (as Ed Gargan)
Joel FriedkinMr. De Witt- Brad BrowneChief of Police
Directing
- Frederick de CordovaDirector
Writing
- Lou BreslowScreenplay
- Val BurtonScreenplay
- Raphael BlauStory
- Ted BerkmanStory
Production
- Michael KraikeProducer