Bedtime for Bonzo

Valerie Tillinghast, daughter of a prominent college dean, is engaged to psychology professor Peter Boyd. When Tillinghast’s father discovers that Peter is the son of a former criminal, he forbids the marriage, declaring Peter's blood to be tainted, in line with his strong belief in heredity as an influence on character. As Peter believes equally strongly in the opposite, he aims to prove that he can raise a chimpanzee as one would a human child in a law-abiding household.

After acquiring a chimpanzee named Bonzo from colleague Hans Neumann, Peter seeks a nanny, ultimately settling on a young woman named Jane. Together, they act as Bonzo's parents, teaching him good habits and providing the simulation of a loving family environment. One afternoon, Bonzo inadvertently turns on the vacuum cleaner and leaps out of the window in alarm, climbing a tree. Jane takes chase, and Bonzo jumps back into the house and dials the emergency services as he has been instructed to do. He then returns to the tree and removes the ladder, leaving Jane stranded until Peter can help her. Valerie arrives just as the firemen are helping them down and misreads the situation, angrily returning Peter's ring.

Tillinghast warns that Bonzo is to be sold to Yale University for medical research, and Jane overhears Peter and Neumann discussing the imminent end of the experiment. As she's developed romantic feelings for Peter, Jane is so shocked that she allows Bonzo to escape on his tricycle. Peter follows him to a jewelry store, where Bonzo grabs a necklace. When Bonzo refuses to return it, Peter tries to do so himself, only to be arrested. Jane instructs Bonzo to surrender the necklace as he has been taught; he obediently returns to the store and replaces it where he had found it in the window. With the experiment judged a success, Tillinghast decides not to sell Bonzo and bestows his blessing on Peter and Jane's impending marriage.

• Ronald Reagan as Professor Peter Boyd
• Diana Lynn as Jane Linden
• Walter Slezak as Professor Hans Neumann
• Lucille Barkley as Valerie Tillinghast
• Jesse White as Babcock
• Herbert Heyes as Dean Tillinghast
• Herb Vigran as Lt. Daggett
• Harry Tyler as Knucksy
• Ed Clark as Foskick
• Ed Gargan as Policeman
• Joel Friedkin as Mr. De Witt
• Brad Browne as Chief of Police
• Elizabeth Flourney as Miss Swithen
• Howard Banks as Policeman
• Perc Launders as Fireman
• Brad Johnson as Student
• Billy Mauch as Student
• Ann Tyrrell as Telephone Operator
• Peggy as Bonzo

During production Reagan was nearly suffocated by the chimpanzee when it pulled on Reagan's necktie. After he broke free the tie had to be cut off Reagan's neck by a crewmember.^[6]

A. H. Weiler of The New York Times called the film "a minor bit of fun yielding a respectable amount of laughs but nothing, actually, over which to wax ecstatic."^[7] Variety described it as "a lot of beguiling nonsense with enough broad situations to gloss over plot holes ... Cameras wisely linger on the chimp's sequences and his natural antics are good for plenty of laughter."^[8] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote, "If you can stomach all this, you'll find some giggles in this farce, which is okay when paying attention to the recently deceased chimp, but is perfectly terrible when trying to tell its story. Ronald Reagan, as the naive professor of things mental, must have felt like the world's sappiest straight man playing this silly role, and the others aren't much better off."^[9]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67%, based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 5.83/10.^[10]

As president, Reagan screened the film for staff and guests at Camp David.^[11]

In 1952, a sequel, Bonzo Goes to College, was released. However, none of the original three leads appeared. Peggy, who had also appeared in My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), died in a fire on March 4, 1951,^[12] so another chimpanzee was hired. Reagan declined as he believed the premise implausible.^[13]

In 1980, Reagan, the film's human lead, was elected President of the United States. Throughout his presidency, the perceived absurdity of the nation's chief executive having co-starred in a film with a chimpanzee was frequently mined for humor by Reagan's critics and other commentators, though Reagan himself remained proud of the film.

• A song unflattering to Reagan entitled "Bad Time for Bonzo" is featured on The Damned's fourth studio album, Strawberries (1982).
• A track on a 1984 Jerry Harrison record samples Reagan and is credited to "Bonzo Goes to Washington"
• The Latin Quarter song "America for Beginners" from their 1985 album Modern Times draws a parallel between Bonzo and Reagan.^[14]
• The film was later referenced in connection with Reagan in the 1986 Ramones song "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)".
• The film is referenced by the Dead Kennedys' 1986 song "Rambozo the Clown" on the titularly inspired album Bedtime for Democracy.

• In the 1980s satirical British series Spitting Image, Reagan is shown as having appointed a dead taxidermied Bonzo as vice president.
• Throughout de Cordova's career as producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Carson and guests would frequently crack jokes and references to Bedtime for Bonzo during Reagan's presidency.

• Bedtime for Bonzo at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Bedtime for Bonzo at IMDb
• Bedtime for Bonzo at the TCM Movie Database
• Bedtime for Bonzo at AllMovie