Never a Dull Moment (1950)

Never a Dull Moment is a 1950 American comedy western film from RKO Pictures, starring Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray. The film is based on the 1943 book Who Could Ask For Anything More? by Kay Swift. The filming took place between December 5, 1949, and February 1, 1950, in Thousand Oaks, California. It has no relation to the 1968 Disney film of the same name starring Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson.

Plot

At a rodeo in New York, visiting cowboy Chris Heyward is charmed to make the acquaintance of Kay Kingsley, a songwriter. They marry and move out west to his ranch in Wyoming. Here, she meets Chris' two daughters from a previous marriage, Nan and Tina, and his old romantic interest, Jean Morrow.

Kay tries to adjust to her new life in Wyoming, but it is hard: a windstorm threatens their home, and the children are leery of her. A rival rancher named Mears holds the water rights to his land; Kay accidentally humiliates him at a dance and kills his prize steer.

Kay is eventually offered a job back in New York that could help pay for the water rights. She takes it, but Chris is alienated; he needs to be persuaded by the kids to return east and win her back.

Cast

Irene Dunne as Kay

Fred MacMurray as Chris

William Demarest as Mears

Andy Devine as Orvie

Gigi Perreau as Tina

Natalie Wood as Nan

Philip Ober as Jed

Jack Kirkwood as Papa Dude

Ann Doran as Jean

Uncredited (in order of appearance)

Jacqueline deWit as Myra Van Elson, Kay's sarcastic friend

Lela Bliss as Mama Dude

Irving Bacon as Tunk Johnson

Gene Evans as Hunter

Olin Howland as Hunter

Paul Newlan as Hunter

Chester Conklin as Albert

Jimmy Hawkins as Chalmers

Mason Alan Dinehart as Sonny Boy

Dan White as Shivaree participant

Victoria Horne as Shivaree participant

Songs by Kay Swift

"Once You Find Your Guy" (sung by Dunne in the film's opening minutes)

"The Man with the Big Felt Hat"

"Sagebrush Lullaby"

Reception

The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther described the film as a "miserably tedious farce" whose "sole achievement as entertainment is the presentation of Irene Dunne in a series of rustic encounters that are about as funny as stepping on a nail."

References

External links

Never a Dull Moment at IMDb

Never a Dull Moment at the TCM Movie Database (archived)

Never a Dull Moment at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films