Never a Dull Moment *** (1968, Dick Van Dyke, Edward G Robinson, Dorothy Provine, Henry Silva) – Classic Movie Review 11,955

Director Jerry Paris’s middling 1968 Walt Disney heist crime comedy film Never a Dull Moment stars Dick Van Dyke, Edward G Robinson, Dorothy Provine, Henry Silva, Slim Pickens and Jack Elam.

Gangster-playing actor Jack Albany (Dick Van Dyke) is mistaken for hitman Ace Williams (Jack Elam) and taken to the fortified mansion of master mobster Leo Joseph Smooth (Edward G Robinson). To survive, Jack Albany has to continue the charade, try save himself and also try to stop Edward G from pinching from the New York art museum the ‘Field of Sunflowers’ painting, a 40-foot masterpiece by fictional artist Dubreaux.

Luckily for Van Dyke, also at the mansion there is art teacher Sally Inwood (Dorothy Provine), whom Robinson has hired for his cultural improvement. Sally distrusts van Dyke at first but eventually believes his story when she realises Robinson plans to kill her. Also around is Joanna Moore as Robinson’s showbiz-crazy spouse Melanie Smooth.

There are some slow bits and, yes, dull moments, and too much flat, flabby dialogue among the generally amusing proceedings, but the genial players help a little to bridge the gaps between the laughs in A J Carothers’s patchy script taken from John Godey’s book. Van Dyke and Robinson do their expected usual turns smoothly, while Provine and Moore are particularly good value.

It is odd how both male stars play characters not a million miles from their real selves – Robinson (then aged 75) as a canny old art expert and Van Dyke as an amiable lightweight TV actor. Here Robinson combines his real-life role as art collector with the last of the movie gangster roles he was famed for.

Also in the cast are Joanna Moore, Tony Bill, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, Ned Glass, Mickey Shaughnessy, Richard Bakalyan, Philip Coolidge, James Millhollin, Eleanor Audley, Johnny Silver, Anthony Caruso and Ken Lynch.

It has no relation to the 1950 Irene Dunne comedy Never a Dull Moment.

American author Morton Freedgood (1913 – April 16, 2006) wrote The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and many other detective and mystery novels under the pen name of John Godey.

Sunflowers is the title of two series of still life paintings by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, done in Paris in 1887, shows the sunflowers lying on the ground, while the second set, made a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. One of the Paris versions ended up in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Joanna Moore married her third husband, Ryan O’Neal, on 3 April 1963. They had two children: Tatum O’Neal (born 1963) and Griffin O’Neal (born 1964).

The cast are Dick Van Dyke as Jack Albany, Edward G Robinson as Leo Joseph Smooth, Dorothy Provine as Sally Inwood, Henry Silva as Frank Boley, Joanna Cook Moore as Melanie Smooth, Tony Bill as Florian, Slim Pickens as Cowboy Schaeffer, Jack Elam as Ace Williams, Ned Glass as Rinzy Tobreski, Richard Bakalyan as Bobby Macoon, Mickey Shaughnessy as Francis, Philip Coolidge as Fingers Felton, James Millhollin as Museum Director, Eleanor Audley as Society Matron, Johnny Silver, Anthony Caruso and Ken Lynch.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,955

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