Disney Legend Dean Jones appeared in more than a dozen films for Disney. After his first two, That Darn Cat and The Ugly Dachshund, he impressed the right people and was quickly signed to star in Monkeys, Go Home! which swung into theaters on this day in 1967. As Hank Dussard, he inherits a large olive farm in France. To save on costly labor, Hank teaches four chimpanzees to do the job, only to be met with vengeance from the local villagers. Yvette Mimieux, who appeared in films such as Where the Boys Are and The Time Machine, played the object of Hank’s affection. In 1978, Yvette returned to Disney as Dr. Kate McCrae in The Black Hole. Maurice Chevalier, who portrays Father Sylvain, is not only a Hollywood legend, but was named a Disney Legend in 2002, for work which also includes In Search of the Castaways and performing the title song in The Aristocats. Monkeys, Go Home! was Darleen Carr’s first role for Disney, but by the end of that year, she also appeared on television in Disney’s Gallegher Goes West mini-series, and was the singing voice of the girl that Mowgli becomes infatuated with in The Jungle Book. She also got a chance to show off her vocal chords with Maurice Chevalier in Monkeys, Go Home!, singing the Sherman Brothers tune “Joie de Vivre.”
