Never a Dull Moment (1968)

Dick Van Dyke acquits himself nicely in colorful role as card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild who is mistaken for a gangster and is roped into an art-heist led by a famous mobster. Comedy from the Disney Studios, adapted from a book by John Godey, has some clever, witty writing in the earliest scenes; however, as with most of Disney's live-action output from this era, the narrative relies far too much on slapstick action to amuse the audience. Edward G. Robinson prods his own movie past with tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Joe Smooth, gangland boss and art lover; Dorothy Provine is perky as an art teacher who believes Van Dyke's outlandish story; and Joanna Moore is very funny as Robinson's show-biz crazy spouse, a former skater once featured in a production of "Scandals On Ice"! The second-half of the picture is comprised mainly of sight-gags and mugging and running around, while Robert Brunner's cartoony score is nearly identical to his music from 1965's "That Darn Cat!" Still, the set-up here is amusing, director Jerry Paris sets a fast pace and the production is good despite over-lit interiors. ** from ****

The plot is as follows: Jack Albany --comic actor who ironically usually plays heavies-- walks off the set of stereotypical gangster TV movie still wearing his mobster outfit costume. He meets a young punk, named Florian, who confuses Jack for a hit man the former was expecting but has never seen. Jack calls upon his best acting skills to pretend to be the hit man (known only as Ace Williams). He and Florian hightail it back to cultured gangster Joe Smooth's mansion. There, while still pretending to be Ace, Jack learns of a Smooth-plot to steal a painting from the Manhatten Museum of Art the next day. "Ace" has the task of killing one or two Museum guards to make the theft possible. Jack makes the acquaintance of Smooth's comely female art instructor. A romance quickly develops between the two. To sum it all up Jack and the instructor then manage to foil the heist, get Smooth and all his henchmen arrested and the new couple live happily ever after (with Jack BTW getting favorable heist-foiling publicity which will undoubtedly help his acting career).Now to the misunderstanding part I wrote of in the title. This film is slightly dull--but on purpose. Ironic to its title. It is supposed to be about the difference between stereotypical-film gangster situations and real life gangsters. When the film opened up taking place on the set of a gangster movie the film Jack and the other actors are making looks all clichéd with a big, melodramatic shootout at the end of the story. There are no such theatrics when Jack is foiling the "real" gangster heist at the Museum --just a lot of talk and clumsy chasing and stumbling (perhaps more like it would really happen). The "real" gangsters are superbly drawn out (even to the point of some of them (like "Cowboy" Schaefer) possibly being slightly boring but hey they are supposed to be more like real life hoods and they aren't supposed to exist for just two hours to entertain us). In short, the misunderstanding was that no viewers who commented on here before seemed to realize it was all supposed to drag (once Jack leaves the movie set) in the name of realism. The realism is also heightened and contrasted by the very small, enclosed movie set Jack was on early versus the very large, ceiling-included mansion he later finds himself in while pretending to be Ace. Also, when the real Ace Williams actually later shows up he is wearing a then-modern 1960's two-piece business suit--contrasting sharply with the stereotyped gangster way Jack is dressed (see above). (What is wrong with Dick Van Dyke (Jack Albany) being mistaken for Jack Elam (the real Ace Williams)? Nobody in the film was supposed to know in the slightest what the authentic hit man looked like.)

The only reason I saw this film is because Edward G. Robinson was in it. However, had I known that it was actually a dopey Disney film, I probably would have skipped it. While the studio today is well-respected, in the late 60s and 70s their output was, to put it charitably, crap.The film begins with Dick Van Dyke playing a character actor who has played, among other things, a lot of gangster roles in movies and TV. However, he's not a particularly famous actor, so when he's mistaken as a REAL gangster he's stuck. They expect him to kill security guards and help them in an art heist--and he just wants to run away and save himself. Can he somehow get out of this alive? While the premise is pretty cute, the execution of the film was pretty bad. Too many broadly acted scenes (like Van Dyke's VERY exaggerated drunk act) really brought the film to a grinding halt--as did the terribly slapsticky and ridiculous ending. Even the kids must have groaned at this one! A total waste of talent and a film I had a hard time finishing.

Having grown up in the sixties, and having an older brother willing to take me to see the latest Disney movie, I'm surprised I never saw this one. Though it's from the late sixties, and the plot by today's standards is overdone and predicable, it's still a fun one to watch. Edward G. Robinson plays a tough mob boss, and has a gang of familiar character actors making up his mob: Mickey Shaughnessy, Henry Silva, Slim Pickens, to name a couple,who are out to steal a famous painting in order to create the heist so history will remember Robinson's character, Joe Smooth. Along comes Dick Van Dyke, mistaken for the ultimate killer, Ace Williams. A "B" actor, Van Dyke's character Jack manages to pull off the role. Throw in a captive art teacher, a sequence with Jack Elam as the real Ace Williams, and a hilarious chase in an art museum, and you've got an entertaining 99 minute film. Rated G, it's a family show, but watch it to enjoy Dick Van Dyke. He lends his talents admirably and shows why he remains one our funniest actors that came to grace both TV and the film industry. Classic Disney and Dick Van Dyke--you can't go wrong with that combo.