Never a Dull Moment | |
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![]() Official theatrical poster | |
Directed by | Jerry Paris |
Written by | A. J. Carothers |
Based on | The Reluctant Assassin by John Godey by Morton Freedgood |
Produced by | Ron Miller |
Starring | Dick Van Dyke Edward G. Robinson Dorothy Provine |
Cinematography | William E. Snyder |
Edited by | Marsh Hendry |
Music by | Robert F. Brunner |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4,150,000 (US/ Canada rentals) [1] |
Never a Dull Moment is a 1968 American heist comedy crime film from Walt Disney Productions starring Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson and directed by Jerry Paris. The script by A. J. Carothers was based The Reluctant Assassin by John Godey. The supporting cast features Dorothy Provine, Henry Silva, Slim Pickens and Jack Elam. Master cartoonist Floyd Gottfredson created a comic strip, Astro Pooch, to be used as a prop in the film. [2]
It was re-released theatrically on April 15, 1977 on a double bill with a re-edited version of The Three Caballeros (1944) in featurette form.
Second-rate actor Jack Albany finds himself mistaken for fiendish killer Ace Williams and whisked off to master gangster Leo Smooth's fortified mansion. He is forced to continue with the charade, even when he finds he is to play a deadly role in the theft of the painting Field of Sunflowers, a 40 foot long masterpiece. Sally, an art teacher, is a potential ally for Jack.
Further complications ensue when the real Ace Williams shows up, making it even more difficult for Albany to keep up his false identity. Eventually, Albany outwits the gangsters and foils the robbery.
Howard Thompson of The New York Times gave Never a Dull Moment a largely negative review, calling it "good-natured" but claiming that "most of it seems mighty strenuous and over-worked." Thompson saved most of his praise for the cartoon that accompanied the film, a reissue of Disney's Three Little Pigs from 1933. (This short also accompanied releases of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in some cities.) [3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a very amusing crime comedy" if "a bit long and talky." [4] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared it "the breeziest and most likeable Disney comedy in some time, with a verve and (relative) sophistication which can engage the favoring interest of the grown-ups as well as the moppets." [5] Clifford Terry of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "The Disney studio comedy starts off amusingly enough, then loses its freshness after the first half hour. But the kids probably won't notice." [6] The Monthly Film Bulletin stated, "With no pretensions to being anything but a rollicking farce, this slight but intermittently amusing comedy largely succeeds on its own modest level." [7] The San Francisco Examiner's Jeanne Miller panned the film, writing that "all but the very young will probably take issue with the title of Never a Dull Moment, which opened yesterday at the Fox-Warfield. For things get very dull indeed in this uninspired, cliche-ridden spoof about a band of zany gangsters who plan the heist of a Manhattan art museum. Of course, the movie was designed by the Walt Disney Studio for the kiddies' summer vacation. But all the wacky misadventures must surely be familiar to the moppets who have seen them over and over again on their TV sets." [8]
Louis Burton Lindley Jr., better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was an American actor and rodeo performer. Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens transitioned to acting and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. For much of his career Pickens played mainly cowboy roles; he is perhaps best remembered today for his comic roles in Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles and 1941, and his villainous turn in One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando.
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Productions in association with the CBS Television Network, and was shot at Desilu Studios. Other producers included Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. The music for the show's theme song was written by Earle Hagen.
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films during a 50-year career and is best remembered for his tough-guy roles as gangsters in such films as Little Caesar and Key Largo. During his career, Robinson received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in House of Strangers.
Richard Wayne Van Dyke is an American actor, entertainer, and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage. Van Dyke is the recipient of multiple awards, including a Golden Globe, Tony, Grammy, a Daytime Emmy, and four Primetime Emmys. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012. He was honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021 and was recognized as a Disney Legend.
Richard Lewis Deacon was an American television and motion picture actor, best known for playing supporting roles in television shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave It To Beaver, and The Jack Benny Program along with minor roles in films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).
The Gnome-Mobile is a 1967 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. Based on the 1936 book The Gnomobile by Upton Sinclair, it was one of the last films personally supervised by Walt Disney. Walter Brennan plays a dual role as D.J. Mulrooney, the kind-hearted lumber tycoon of Irish descent; and as the irascible 943-year-old gnome Knobby in the film, which has been described as "wavering between a comedy, a romance, a drama, and an environmental critique". The children, Elizabeth and Rodney, were played by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, previously the Banks children in Mary Poppins (1964). Tom Lowell, Richard Deacon, and Sean McClory round out the rest of the film's cast.
Sheldon Leonard Bershad was an American film and television actor, producer, director, and screenwriter.
The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 American comedy-Western film directed by Norman Tokar. The plot is about a slick gambler named Russell Donovan who is duped into taking care of a group of orphans who eventually strike gold. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions.
William Scott "Jack" Elam was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies. His most distinguishing physical quality was his misaligned eye. Before his career in acting, he took several jobs in finance and served two years in the United States Navy during World War II.
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Dorothy Michelle Provine was an American singer, dancer and actress. Born in 1935 in Deadwood, South Dakota, she grew up in Seattle, Washington, and was hired in 1958 by Warner Bros., after which she first starred in The Bonnie Parker Story and played many roles in TV series. During the 1960s, Provine starred in series such as The Alaskans and The Roaring Twenties, and her major roles in movies included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Good Neighbor Sam (1964) with Jack Lemmon, That Darn Cat! (1965), Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966), Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), and Never a Dull Moment (1968) with Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson. In 1968, Provine married the film and television director Robert Day and mostly retired. She died of emphysema on April 25, 2010 in Bremerton, Washington.
William Gerald Paris was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and for directing the majority of the episodes of the sitcom Happy Days.
Morton Freedgood was an American author who wrote The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and many other detective and mystery novels under the pen name John Godey.
Richard Bakalyan was an American actor who started his career playing juvenile delinquents in his first several films.
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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.
Never a Dull Moment may refer to:
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Never a Dull Moment is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Edward C. Lilley and written by Mel Ronson and Stanley Roberts. The film stars Ritz Brothers, Frances Langford, Mary Beth Hughes, Franklin Pangborn, Stuart Crawford, George Zucco, Elisabeth Risdon and Jack La Rue. The film was released on November 19, 1943, by Universal Pictures.
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