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."