Never a Dull Moment (1950)

As Good As It Gets

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

After watching some eps from the Death In Paradise box set I gave him as a Father's Day present,my dad started checking what films were on BBC iPlayer. Both of us being fans of his movies since seeing the Flubber flicks,we were pleased to find a rare Fred MacMurray that had just screened,which would hopefully not have a dull moment.The plot:Taking care of his daughters after the death of their mum/his wife, Chris Heyward raises cash by being a rodeo who travels across states. During a visit to New York,Heyward crosses paths with singer Kay Kingsley,and falls in love for the first time since he became a widow. Catching each other up in a whirlwind romance,the couple get married,and Kingsley leaves the songs,to join Heyward and his kids on the farm. Despite getting a warm welcome,Kingsley is unable to shake the feeling that she is suited to the limelight,rather than the farm life.View on the film:Getting knee-deep into all the farmyard chores,the very pretty Irene Dunne (who replaced Myrna Loy) gives a wonderful performance as Kingsley,whose singing glitters with gold that Dunne melts down into a Southern belle. Joined by a very young Natalie Wood (and future Rebel Without a Cause co-star Ann Doran) Fred MacMurray gives a great performance as Heyward,with MacMurray throwing Screwball Comedy haystacks in exchanges with Andy Devine's very funny Orvie.Keeping the Comedy and Melodrama lassos spinning, MacMurray gives a warm sincerity to Heyward's attempts to support Kingsley getting used to a different lifestyle. Bringing Frank Capra's cinematographer Joseph Walker down on the farm,director George Marshall impressively finds ultra-stylised barns for the daily grind of the family,via rustic tracking shots going over the muddy boots and family dog leaping for joy,to elegant overlapping shots listening in on local gossip,in a town that never has a dull moment.

Our story begins at a charity rodeo in New YOrk City where one of the cowboys (Fred MacMurray) meets and quickly falls in love with a song writer (Irene Dunne). They are next seen after their marriage as they return to the ranch, where MacMurray has 2 young daughters from his previous marriage (which ended with the death of his wife). The ranch is a simple one that shows promise, but the overarching problem is water rights. The Wyoming folks enthusiastically welcome the new wife...except for neighboring rancher William Demarest, who holds the water rights. Dunne fits right in...except for with Demarest, whom she accidentally humiliates at a party. Much of the early part of the film traces her difficult (but good-spirited) adjustment to ranch life. Then, she accidentally kills Demarest's prize steer. She almost returns to New York where she could quickly earn money to help pay for more water rights, but she feels she is needed by the children and her husband, so declines the Broadway job. But, eventually things go from bad to worse, and she does return to New York, only for MacMurray to be dragged (or should I say carried) by Andy Devine to patch things up.This is a somewhat typical romantic comedy, but they resist the common temptation to resort to an imagined affair and jealousy as a reason to scotch the marriage and lead to kissing and making up. That's where I thought it was going, but thank goodness they followed a somewhat more realistic route. The one complaint I have is that a simple solution would be for her to work on her music at the ranch and not have to return to New York City. Ah well, that would be too obvious.Irene Dunne is wonderful here. Humorous and warm...perfect for the role. Fred MacMurray should never have taken the role on "My Three Sons"; it forever tainted his career, and people mostly forget what an important and beloved actor he was; he's very good here an believable as a cowboy/rancher. William Demarest is almost cartoonish here; they should have lightened him up just a tad. Andy Devine is seen mostly at the beginning and ending of the film, but he's good here, and important the story line. Natalie Wood again is a young girl, the elder daughter; she seemed like a natural.Nice gentle humor with a warm love story. A very nice film.

Never A Dull Moment is based on the book written by Broadway composer Kay Swift who gave up the bright lights of Broadway to settle down as a rancher's wife. Although it won't make the list of Irene Dunne's best films, it does have its amusing aspects and holds up pretty good today.The real Kay Swift according to her Wikipedia biography in 1939 met a rodeo cowboy and in a whirlwind courtship, married him and settled down on his ranch. Previously Swift whose two best known songs, popular to this day are Fine And Dandy and Can't We Be Friends, was involved in a long term relationship with George Gershwin. She had also been married before and I believe Philip Ober's character is based on her ex-husband, Paul James.In any event the film bears some similarities to another true story about urbanites moving to the country, The Egg And I in which Fred MacMurray also starred. Nobody could ever complain about Fred MacMurray as a light leading man in comedies. But as he himself said in westerns, even modern ones, the horse and he were never as one. The part MacMurray plays is not to dissimilar from the one John Wayne did in A Lady Takes A Chance. I think the Duke would have been great in the role and we would have seen a once in a lifetime teaming of Irene Dunne and John Wayne.Natalie Wood and Gigi Perreau play MacMurray's two daughters who take to Dunne quite easily, none of the stepmother angst in this film. And William Demarest has a great role as a grumpy old neighbor that MacMurray and Dunne have to put up with because he has the source of their water on his property.Not a great comedy for Dunne like The Awful Truth, Theodora Goes Wild, or My Favorite Wife, but an amusing film that will please her fans.

Irene Dunne, one of the best comediennes in the history of the movies, retired from acting after completing this comedy that was not up to her best work. Ms. Dunne was seen in great films during her Hollywood career that were made better by her style, sophistication and beauty. Alas, in this one, her character, Kay Kingsley is swept off her feet to a rancher who lives out west.Kay Kingsley is part of a composing team based in Manhattan. Kay is elegant, smart, and it's hard to imagine she would fall in a short period of time for Chris, who is way out of her league, and who comes with some baggage, as he is a widower with two young daughters back home. This is a big proposition because it involves leaving behind modern plumbing and heat. Accepting that premise, Kay transplants herself to the ranch that is falling apart because of neglect and lack of money to improve it.Things go from bad to worst. The two girls, Nan, and Tina, give Kay a guarded welcome, but they come around when they see she is a good person who has had no experience with her present situation. With the help of her neighbor Jean, Kay gets a handle on things, not before running away to Manhattan to try to see if she still wants her old life back.The film was directed by George Marshall, a veteran of the movies, who tried to give the comedy some pacing, but doesn't succeed well. The problem with the film is Fred MacMurray, an otherwise perfect actor, who shows no chemistry with Ms. Dunne. Irene Dunne tries her best to make her Kay a wife and step-mother. William Demarest, Andie Devine, Ann Doran and Philip Ober are seen in supporting roles. Gigi Perreau, a child actress of the time, plays Tina, and Natalie Wood, who, as Neil Doyle points out, was probably having problems at the time and is not her usual self as Nan. See the film as a curiosity and because this was Irene Dunne's swan song at the movies.