Bedtime for Bonzo

Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)

The funniest new idea on film since "FRANCIS!"

College prof Peter Boyd tries to salvage his professional and personal reputation by using a lab chimp to prove that environment trumps heredity in behavioral development.

Date of release
1951-04-05
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (21)
Runtime
1h 23m
Genres
Comedy, Family, Romance
Director
Frederick de Cordova
Collection
Bonzo Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Bedtime for Bonzo is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Fred de Cordova and starring Ronald Reagan, Diana Lynn and a chimpanzee as Bonzo. Its central character, a psychology professor (Reagan), tries to teach human morals to a chimpanzee, hoping to solve the "nature versus nurture" question.

Production

During production, Reagan was nearly suffocated by the chimpanzee when it pulled on his necktie. After Reagan broke free, the tie had to be cut by a crewmember in order to remove it.

The chimpanzee's name was either Peggy or Tamba; conflicting names are provided in media accounts. It had won a PATSY Award for its work in My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), understood 500 commands and earned $500 per week. Reagan was scheduled to present the 1951 PATSY Award with the chimpanzee, but it was killed in a fire on March 4, 1951.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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