Disney’s Never A Dull Moment (1968) finds Dick Van Dyke as a struggling actor who is mistaken by a mob boss (Edward G. Robinson) for a hired killer who is expected to aid in the theft of a 40 foot painting. To ensure that news of the heist doesn’t leak to the police none of the hoods are allowed off the criminal mastermind’s estate.
Never A Dull Moment is adapted from Morton Freedgood’s novel The Reluctant Assassin (Freedgood is best known for his book The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three). Curiously enough Never A Dull Moment, with its limited locations, feels more like an adaptation of a play rather than a novel. The film emphasizes verbal repartee and physical slapstick that is photographed in wide shots which also contribute to the theatricality of the film.
Of course rapid wordplay and physical comedy are the two strengths of Dick Van Dyke as a performer. Van Dyke does well in his role but no amount of acting can help the plot of the movie to make any sort of sense.The film gets into trouble by not seizing the moment to lampoon the organized crime genre. Rather than do something edgy the executives at Disney have instead populated the gang with cartoonish archetypes that, despite how amusing they can be, have nothing to do with crime movies. The one exception being the casting of Henry Silva as the main heavy who gets in Van Dyke’s way.
Like all live action Disney movies of this period Never A Dull Moment is shot with flat, bold colors that draw attention to the fact that everything happens on a soundstage. There’s a reflexive moment in the opening of the film that plays with this notion but it never reaches the inspired comedic heights of Jerry Lewis’ The Ladies’ Man (1961). Never A Dull Moment is simply par for the course as far as Disney movies are concerned.
