Never a Dull Moment

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.

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.

Rodeo cowboy Chris (Fred MacMurray) has a whirlwind romance while visiting New York for a charity gig where he meets song writer Kay (Irene Dunne.)

After rapidly getting married she drives cross country to his ramshackle Wyoming ranch where she becomes stepmother to his two daughters from his first marriage.

Much of the movie sees Kay trying to adjust to her life at the ranch and raise her new stepdaughters. Problems begin with the neighbouring rancher who holds the water rights and whose cow, Kay accidentally shoots.

Kay contemplates returning to Broadway to earn money in this fish out of water comedy. The cast make the film better than it should be, there are a few songs but it really is not that funny and rather predictable.

The reviews on this board seem to hold Dunne and MacMurray up to their usual elite standard of comedy. There is nothing wrong with that if you only want to see the best of the best. So, if that's all you have time for, then perhaps you'll want to pass on this one.

However, I watched this film today for the second time. Honestly, I didn't care much for it a few years ago, so I wrote it off. However, I recorded it thinking maybe I'd been too hard on it and as I watched it again, I realized that I had been a bit too judgmental.

The weakness lies in the script. Perhaps the aging Irene Dunne (who certainly still looked lovely and young for her age), wasn't being offered the best scripts anymore. I find that sad for an actress of her caliber, but it still happens today when actresses approach the age of 45-50.

However, it is still a cute comedy with a fine cast. Fred MacMurray is a macho but weary cowboy with financial problems. His performance reflects this stress effectively. His daughters are a bit precocious at first, but Irene passes their tests and their affection grows.

The supporting cast is fine. I love the telephone scenes where all the local women can listen in on a conversation and, of course, begin gossiping. Poor Irene Dunne's character is worked to death by everyone with little appreciation, but this is purely for comic effect. Gigi Perreau and Natalie Wood were darling and great little horsewomen. If Natalie was having an awkward stage, as mentioned in some other reviews, then I'll take hers over the one I had with no braces and an unflattering Dorothy Hamill haircut when I was 11.

Overall, this isn't the best of the best, but it's certainly not the worst of the worst. It's still worth a watch if you enjoy these actors or this genre. Predictable and formulaic it is, but it's still much better than most of what's showing today. Also, it has some catchy songs and we get to enjoy hearing Irene's lovely voice.

I'm glad I viewed this one again. It was a fine way to spend a rainy afternoon with some of my favorite stars.

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.