moonspinner55
Lou Breslow and Doris Anderson adapted Kay Swift's semi-autobiographical book (the uncredited "Who Could Ask For Anything More") about a female songstress from New York City who has a whirlwind courtship and marriage to a widower cowboy named Chris. She makes all the sacrifices and learns to love life down on his dilapidated ranch, while the cowboy's two young daughters test their new step-mother out and the cowboy-husband spends his time mending fences and hunting cougars. By-the-numbers comedy-romance admittedly doesn't score points against Irene Dunne's smart cookie of a wife (she has a few entanglements, which are neatly ironed out). Still, the screen-union of Dunne with the somewhat-malevolent Fred MacMurray never convinces--and when he speaks to her, it's always as if he had just inherited another daughter. Kay Swift wrote the simple, singalong tunes, Gigi Perreau and Natalie Wood are adorable as the youngsters, though the script never resolves the heroine's out-of-her-element predicament. Thus, the rosy ending doesn't quite wash. ** from ****
emivan
Having seen the lovely Irene Dunne perform many years ago in her better known movie "The Awful Truth" (1937), I looked with great expectations forward to watching my recently acquired DVD "Never a Dull Moment". However, I soon realized the awful truth that this movie was much below par to any previous movie she has ever starred in. Irene Dunne who was 52 years old at the time and approaching the end of her movie career was poorly matched with Fred MacMurray who was 10 years her junior, which might also explain perhaps the lack of chemistry between the two stars. The script writing is very poor and lacking of any clever and witty dialog for both of them to work on. In my opinion they could have made the courtship a bit more interesting with some romantic interludes included, instead what we see are a few minutes of the bottom half of legs shoveling through hallways; very unimaginative and cheaply done, but I suppose the priority might have been to get them in a hurry out into the rural country side for all the silly slapstick action. Irene Dunne also sings in this movie but as much as I love and admire Irene for having been a great actress, singing was definitely not one of her strongest attributes and especially the first number is quite embarrassing; it would have been better if a professional singer had dubbed her voice. It is also made quite obvious that the fast horse riding and being thrown of the horse was done by a stunt person. All in all a big disappointment, mainly due to bad directing and bad script writing and a sad end to what has otherwise been a great acting career for Irene Dunne, however this movie might appeal to children 8 to 14 on a rainy Sunday afternoon, mainly for the silly slapstick humor and uncomplicated story line which might be more appealing to this age group
fineincarolina
This movie featured Irenne Dunne city slicking wife who marries a widower rancher. She and her husband (Fred McMurray)are just a fun couple who have many funny incidents that happen as a married couple. This movie is reminiscent of The Egg and I that Dunne is featured in during the 1940s. Although some say this movie is not very good for Dunne and that it is predictable-- it is funny, innocent, and a great movie for a Sunday afternoon with the family. My family and I have watched copies of this on VHS for years and I even bought another copy off ebay hoping to get a better copy (but it happened to be a copy recorded from TV--BOO ebay!). Anyway my aunt asked me to borrow my copy just the other day and I couldn't help but to watch it again. It requires little though some good laughs and a love of classic films as a prerequisite to watch this one.
Neil Doyle
IRENE DUNNE, for some strange reason, is called "Buckshot" by her cowboy husband FRED MacMURRAY. That alone is supposed to be funny and endearing. Not.Too bad that after the smash success of films like LIFE WITH FATHER, Irene Dunne was so desperate for good parts that she agreed to settle for a film like this--tedious, predictable, banal sort of comedy that struggles manfully to be funny by putting her through some slapstick paces that are about as funny as a stubbed toe.Occasionally there's a lull in the proceedings that gives Dunne and MacMurray a chance to remind us that they're still the same old likable stars. But then the script takes over again and forces them to play a series of unlikely scenes.For good measure, they have two obnoxious girls (played by a plain looking Natalie Wood who clearly did have an awkward stage, and Gigi Perreau). They add nothing to the charm or situations which strain for laughs. One of the comedic highlights is supposedly when Dunne shoots a neighbor's pet bull. You get my drift.You can skip this one. Even the presence of two top-flight stars can't save it from being the most inappropriately titled comedy of the decade.
AD
