Monkeys, Go Home!

Synopsis of Movie

It’s all about the monkeys. Decades before Any Which Way But Loose and Chimp Channel, those geniuses over at Disney already had the formula figured out: Monkeys equals funny. More monkeys equals more funny. With this in mind, the studio produced its 1967 chimporee, Monkeys, Go Home!

Learning he has inherited a French olive farm from a deceased uncle, American Henry Dussard travels out to the small Gallic village to see it. Father Sylvain, the local priest, warns Henry of the costliness of olive farming, advising him either to sell or to raise a large family to help out. But American ingenuity is not so easily defeated.

Henry trains a quartet of chimps to harvest the olives for him, enlisting local beauty Maria Riserau to help. Spurred by a real estate developer who hopes to buy Henry’s farm, the citizens protest Henry’s monkey methods. On top of that, Henry has to deal with the arrival of a male monkey, whose presence distracts his four swooning females from their work. Wacky monkey hijinks ensue.

Monkeys, Go Home! was the final screen performance of French actor Maurice Chevalier, who also sang the show’s theme, “Joie de Vivre.” Despite the primate factor, the movie fared poorly at the box office, and the master plan to replace all human actors with monkeys was prematurely scrapped.

Movie Release History

1967 - Monkeys, Go Home!

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
comedy
disney

Movie Studio

Disney

Cast

Father Sylvain Maurice Chevalier
Hank Dussard Dean Jones
Maria Riserau Yvette Mimieux
Marcel Cartucci Bernard Woringer
Emile Paraulis Clement Harari
Yolande Angelli Yvonne Constant
Mayor Gaston Lou Marcel Hillaire
Monsieur Piastillio Jules Munshin
Grocer Alan Carney
Fontanino Maurice Marsac
Sidoni Riserau Darleen Carr

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