Never a Dull Moment (1968)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Dick Van Dyke acquits himself nicely in colorful role as card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild who is mistaken for a gangster and is roped into an art-heist led by a famous mobster. Comedy from the Disney Studios, adapted from a book by John Godey, has some clever, witty writing in the earliest scenes; however, as with most of Disney's live-action output from this era, the narrative relies far too much on slapstick action to amuse the audience. Edward G. Robinson prods his own movie past with tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Joe Smooth, gangland boss and art lover; Dorothy Provine is perky as an art teacher who believes Van Dyke's outlandish story; and Joanna Moore is very funny as Robinson's show-biz crazy spouse, a former skater once featured in a production of "Scandals On Ice"! The second-half of the picture is comprised mainly of sight-gags and mugging and running around, while Robert Brunner's cartoony score is nearly identical to his music from 1965's "That Darn Cat!" Still, the set-up here is amusing, director Jerry Paris sets a fast pace and the production is good despite over-lit interiors. ** from ****

Having grown up in the sixties, and having an older brother willing to take me to see the latest Disney movie, I'm surprised I never saw this one. Though it's from the late sixties, and the plot by today's standards is overdone and predicable, it's still a fun one to watch. Edward G. Robinson plays a tough mob boss, and has a gang of familiar character actors making up his mob: Mickey Shaughnessy, Henry Silva, Slim Pickens, to name a couple,who are out to steal a famous painting in order to create the heist so history will remember Robinson's character, Joe Smooth. Along comes Dick Van Dyke, mistaken for the ultimate killer, Ace Williams. A "B" actor, Van Dyke's character Jack manages to pull off the role. Throw in a captive art teacher, a sequence with Jack Elam as the real Ace Williams, and a hilarious chase in an art museum, and you've got an entertaining 99 minute film. Rated G, it's a family show, but watch it to enjoy Dick Van Dyke. He lends his talents admirably and shows why he remains one our funniest actors that came to grace both TV and the film industry. Classic Disney and Dick Van Dyke--you can't go wrong with that combo.

Never A Dull Moment provided Hollywood icon Edward G. Robinson with the opportunity to do things. Add a Walt Disney movie to his list of screen credits and allow him to do a film about his passionate avocation, that of art collector.Robinson combines it with the last of gangster roles, that of Leo Joseph Smooth, both gangster and art collector. Robinson is pretty much retired from the day to day business of running a criminal enterprise, kind of like Vito Corleone only he's pulling himself back in for one last go.He has it mind to own a large mural that is being shipped to the United States for exhibit so he's going to steal it. With that in mind he hires a whole lot of his old gang back plus a couple of extra hands.Which is where Dick Van Dyke comes in. For reasons I cannot fathom, Tony Bill mistakes actor Dick Van Dyke with hoodlum Jack Elam. To save his life Van Dyke goes along with the mistake for almost the entire run of the film as he's taken to Robinson's well guarded home. Van Dyke calls on all his acting skills to convince Robinson and his whole gang he's really a hoodlum.Fortunately for him he meets up with Dorothy Provine who's an art teacher that Robinson hired to improve him culturally. The two of them have a whale of a time trying to get out before the caper comes off.Never A Dull Moment has a few good laughs and also in Disney studio's tradition at that time, employs a nice range of film character actors who were finding less and less work as the studios were putting out less and less product for the big screen.It does rest however on the weak premise that Dick Van Dyke could possibly be mistaken for Jack Elam. In that it's weak indeed.

The title is quite true. There is never a dull 'moment' in this film, simply because the entire movie consists of 100 dull minutes. Van Dyke plays a bit-part actor who becomes entangled with gangster/mob type caricatures stealing a valuable painting, and other such dross. (On that note the film is about as lacklustre as the 1965 co-production 'Theft Of The Mona Lisa'). The director seems to have been offered an entirely different script to the one offering the audience alleged 'comedy', which is regrettably confined to Van Dyke's "unique" brand of muggery (eg Lt Robinson Crusoe, 1966). Ed G Robinsons presence is not even worth mentioning, in the hope that it can be overlooked in summation of his career's overall contribution to American movie history and development. An inept, feeble-minded vomition of the sort of pap that elucidates any mystery surrounding why such a tycoon as Walt D should have ended up bankrupt.