Never a Dull Moment

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.

Famous New York singer-songwriter Kay Kingsley (Irene Dunne) and widowed rancher Chris Hayward (Fred MacMurray) fall for each other at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo. They get matched up by their friends and quickly get married. She moves out west to live on his ranch with his two little daughters, Nan (Natalie Wood) and Tina.

The premise should be simple enough. It's a city girl in the country. She's a fish out of the city waters. She could be more city. The country could be less. There is a way to do this funny. This is trying very very hard. She gets beaten up plenty but few of them strike me as funny. Her stunt double definitely had lots of work for this movie. It also seems to me that a singer could do some singing even in the country. In the end, this isn't all that funny and that's all that matters.

With Fred MacMurray and Irene Dunne headlining this film, one could expect some great comedy. But, unfortunately, the screenplay just doesn't have it. "Never a Dull Moment" is still a good film and an okay comedy and romance. It has a nice family touch to it with two young daughters of MacMurray's Chris Hayward. One of those is Natalie Wood as 12-year-old Nan.

The film is based on a 1943 biographical novel by Kay Swift (1897-1993), "Who Could Ask for Anything More?" She was a well-known composer for Broadway and Hollywood. Swift had met cowboy, Faye Hubbard, at a rodeo in 1939 and two weeks later married him. She went with him to his Oregon ranch, but the marriage only lasted seven years. She had three children before that in her first marriage, so they may have been on the ranch with her. Atter her 1946 divorce from Hubbard she married again, and that marriage lasted 23 years but ended in divorce in 1969. She wrote her book about the life on the ranch with her second husband while they were yet married.

This film reminds one a little of "The Farmer's Daughter" of 1947 that starred Loretta Young and Joseph Cotton. In that film, Young plays a farm girl who goes to the city. She can do multiple chores and household tasks without problems. That's a great comedy, romance and satire, with a tremendous screenplay. In this film, the writers have Dunne's Kay learning the ropes of farm life including housework, farm chores, etc. But, very little of it involves mishaps or comedy. Nor does MacMurray provide much comedy beyond a couple of lines.

The one thing that Irene Dunne gets to do in this film is sing. She had a good voice but didn't have many roles that included singing. Here she has a couple of tunes- one solo and once with the Western crowd in her home. Maybe the real Kay could sing too.

If one wants lots of laughs, they won't be found here. But, for a light film with a nice family story and some humor, this one will do very nicely.

By-the-numbers romantic comedy via Kay Swift's semi-autobiographical book (the uncredited "Who Could Ask For Anything More") about a songstress from New York City (Irene Dunne) who has a whirlwind courtship and marriage to a widower cowboy (Fred MacMurray). You know you're in for it when you hear the nicknames: she calls herself "The Bride of the Cattle King" while hubby condescendingly refers to her as "Buckshot". Dunne's self-sacrificing Kay has to learn to love life down on the (dilapidated) ranch, while MacMurray's cowboy Chris (!) spends his time mending fences and hunting cougars, and his two young daughters test their new stepmother out. Screenwriters Lou Breslow and Doris Anderson thankfully don't attempt to score points against Dunne (she's a smart cookie who suffers through a few entanglements before they're neatly ironed out); however, the union of Kay and the slightly-malevolent Chris is never convincing--and when he speaks to her, it's always as if he'd just inherited another daughter. Swift wrote the simple, singalong tunes, Gigi Perreau and Natalie Wood are adorable as the youngsters, but the script never resolves the heroine's out-of-her-element predicament. Thus, the rosy ending doesn't quite wash. ** from ****

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.