Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)

Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)

A Psychology professor sets out to prove the superiority of the upbringing environment when compared to mere genetic influence when the details of his own father's criminal life surface and objections to his marriage to the dean's daughter arise.

The subject of a lot of jokes back when Ronald Reagan was in office, (partially also based on the fact that by mentioning the film Johnnie made fun of - but also promoted - producer Fred de Cordova who directed the movie,) is probably unjustly remembered, mostly by people when never saw it and relied on the late-night jokes to form an uniformed opinion.
Reagan himself didn't seem to mind the fun and the intended criticism might have backfired by helping turn the previously forgotten film into a cult item and by helping (mostly indirectly) to keep Reagan in office, whose character, other than lightly suffering of emotional blindness, comes off looking just fine.

The general public might still mostly believe that Science Fiction should involve futurism, space and/or time travel or bug-eyed monster invasions, but Science Fiction is much more than that.

This film, for example (despite getting some of its science wrong by repeatedly assigning the wrong taxonomy: an ape is not an monkey!) by dealing with a detailed primate psychology experiment in which it is intended to prove the importance of nurture above nature and which predated and paralleled real-life scientific experiments with a chimpanzee raised in a human family to disastrous results (refer to Lucy the chimp) is literally science-based fiction, i.e. Science Fiction.

Most of the details of the scientific method are off, but some of what we see including the use of photography and cinematography to document the process and results are exactly what a real-life experimenter would have done in this case.
There is clearly inadequate observation and note taking, and there are no controls whatsoever onscreen; and the disregard of emotional involvement or other effects by the scientist, (which parallels what happened real life as well,) but not by the more emotionally aware nanny who is hired to be the chimpanzee's 'mommy' still properly addresses it.

The success of the experiment is also simplistic and unimpressive: The supposed learned respect of private property is misconstrued as the equivalent of human morality ("decency and honesty") and is subjected to a singular, simple test before a final verdict is made, (improbably acquitting Reagan's character.)

The film was clearly not intended as a serious Science Fiction vehicle; though the poster sells it as an outright romp, its intent was clearly a blend of Comedy, Romance and Drama (with any one of them not necessarily dominating the other two,) but it is also not going for the goofy, juvenile result Disney's chimp movies of the 1960s were aiming for (The Monkey's Uncle, and such); nevertheless, awareness of the real-life Project Nim makes one watch the film with quite a different, more serious, appreciation.

The casting of Reagan was only slightly problematic (at least for me,) generating an initial negative reaction; but it was not long before I got used to it, only becoming aware again at odd moments that yes, this guy was a future POTUS.

With Peggy (whose voice is clearly ADR'd by a human actor,) Diana Lynn, Walter Slezak, Lucille Barkley, Jesse White and Herbert Heyes. Screenplay by Val Burton, who ironically was later blacklisted.

Watch it cold, or first read up on Lucy before watching, but definitely check it out.