Cheap Bedtime for Bonzo (Video) (Ronald Reagan, Diana Lynn) (Frederick De Cordova) Price

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Customer Reviews of Bedtime for Bonzo

A classic B-movie starring Ronald Reagan as well as Bonzo
Political opponents of Ronald Reagan always liked to refer to "Bedtime for Bonzo" as some sort of joke film, but it really is a solid B-movie tha offers a solid performance by the future president. Reagan plays Peter Boyd, a professor of psychology whose father was a thief. To impress Dean Tillinghast (Herbert Heyes), not to mention the dean's lovely daughter, Valerie (Lucille Barkley), Peter sets out to prove that environment is a more important factor than heredity. Towards this end he borrows Bonzo from a zoology professor (Walter Slezak) and takes the chimp home to raise him like a human. Peter even hires a nurse named Jane (Diana Lynn) to become Bonzo's "mother," and everything proceeds well for a while.

Of course the dean's daughter gets jealous and Bonzo senses things are not going well for his happy home. Fascinated with pretty jewelry, Bonzo steals a valuable necklace from a store. Peter is accused of having trained the chimp to steal (heredity wills out as it were) and is jailed. Fortunately Jane and Bonzo are pretty much smarter than the rest of this crew put together and we have a happy ending.

Reagan's performance in this movie is solid, with just the right touch of conviction and exasperation as he deals with the upstaging chimp in scene after scene. Think about how hard it is to act with a chimp: look what Cheetah did to Johnny Weismueller. Walter Slezak as Professor Neumann is a great second banana in this film, but Reagan makes "Bedtime for Bonzo" work. He makes this whole crazy story believable and that is what you need in this type of film.

Just think of all the people over the years who have watched this film to ridicule Reagan and who had to end up admitting this is an entertaining little film that deserves to be remembered as more than a curious footnote in Reagan's acting career. "Bedtime for Bonzo" is directed by Frederick De Cordova, who would eventually be better known for directing television shows like "The Burns and Allen Show, " "The Jack Benny Show" and "December Bride" as Freddy De Cordova. Most people today would remember him as the executive producer of the "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson.

Monkey Love
"Bedtime for Bonzo" is more than a B-movie built on schemes and pratfalls.

In a movie masked as a question of environment versus genetics, we are treated to a love story as gentle as a Disney flick, as innocent as "Leave It to Beaver" and as silly as a Martin and Lewis comedy.

The havoc is huge that Bonzo causes as he tramps across the screen, as Peter, a psychology professor (famously played by Ronald Reagan) follows in pursuit. The star chimpanzee leads Peter into chaos with Valerie. Peter thinks he intends to marry Valerie, and uses Bonzo to help prove his valor to her father.

In the process of convoluting a scheme to win the approval of Valerie's father, Peter hires a nanny to help with good Bonzo's parenting. Jane, the nanny, is willing but naïve, and her childlike manner unexpectedly endears Peter who becomes confused about his commitment to Valerie.

Bonzo longs to please his neo-mother Jane, and swipes a hard-to-steal necklace from a jewelry store. This plants Peter in a pound of trouble, and furthers Valerie's father's ill-founded belief that his daughter's boyfriend is a ne'er-do-well professorial thug.

Will Peter's honesty and goodness shine through? Can he convince a non-human primate to make the right decision and return the stolen necklace? Will Valerie's father realize the error of his ideas? What about Peter and his confused heart?

The ending comes about predictably, but satisfyingly.

I fully recommend "Bedtime for Bonzo."

Anthony Trendl