Bonzo Goes to College (1952) User Reviews

Best to stick with the original, though this is oddly entertaining.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 20 February 2018]

In many ways, this sequel to "Bedtime for Bonzo" is more a stand-alone film. No mention is made of the first film nor its characters (aside from Bonzo) and you have no idea how Bonzo no longer is living with the professor and his lady love in the first movie (Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn). Instead, the story begins with Bonzo working in a traveling show and only a bit later does he appear at a college--a different one from the first film. Confusing, huh?

After running away from a traveling show, Bonzo wanders about and arrives in a small college town. The football coach (Edmund Gwenn) and his hard luck team lost every game the season before and it looks like he'll soon get fired. But when they learn Bonzo can play football well AND is super-smart, they enroll him! But some evil gamblers kidnap Bonzo and it looks like the team won't win after all...or will it?

When you think about it, this is an awfully stupid plot...a chimp going to college and playing football. Well, it's certainly no dumber than Francis the Mule playing football...and he did during this same era! The film, though dopey, is cute and enjoyable because the actors try their best. But it's still a pale follow-up to the original...a film that I actually love and which worked much better than this one.

I'm giving this one a 4...and that might be a bit generous.

Don't monkey around with smart simians.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 4 May 2015]

Somehow after being taken under the wing of Ronald Reagen, that cute chimp Bonzo has ended up in the carnival as "the chimp who can answer any question", running away after his new trainer has admonished him for missing the answer to a question that con-artists provided doctored documents in an effort to scam him. The run away chimp simply crawls into the window of cute tot Gigi Perreau who is thrilled what she believes is a present from her college football coach grandpa (former "Santa Claus" Edmund Gwenn). Gigi's parents (Maureen O'Sullivan and Charles Drake) are convinced to "adopt" him which creates all sorts of confusion with O'Sullivan's wealthy dad (Gene Lockhart) and eventually brings back the con-artists who decide to kidnap Bonzo when Gwenn makes him a football star. Simple story but amusing execution makes this a lot of fun.

The future granny to Ellie Mae's critters (Irene Ryan) is the maid here who is so amused by a chimp's presence in her household that she goes out of her way to give him mashed bananas for breakfast every day, eventually changing to banana fritters. Who can't resist a chimp riding a tricycle? It's also amusing when Bonzo escapes meeting a court judge and jumps on the witness stand in court when an apparent "other man" is called in a divorce case. Lots of cute moments like this pad out the film where it is predictable that the lame-brain con's from the opening segment will turn up again. While Bonzo does steal every scene he's in, he's also equalled in scene-stealing by the two grandfathers and the adorable little girl. Bonzo's also a bit of a wise-acre too, especially when asked who fiddled when Rome burned. This is the type of film that Walt Disney would steal from in the 1960's and 70's for his college themed movies, but somehow, this one seems fresher and much more thought out.