7/10
A Memorable Vacation
16 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I remember seeing All in a Night's Work when it first came out in 1961. It was at a drive-in movie with my cousins who I was visiting at the time. It was and still remains a very funny film with Dino and Shirley giving some great performances.

If this had been made at Universal instead of Paramount All in a Night's Work would have been starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Dino steps into a Rock Hudson part as the wolfish heir to a publishing empire. And Shirley, though she invests the part with her own brand of kookiness, is really Doris the eternal virgin. After all she does go to Florida for the sunshine on her vacation.

Shirley gets a bit more than she bargained for. After saving a lecherous old playboy from drowning, she has to fend off his advances in the best Doris Day manner. In doing so she stumbles into the room of her boss, the owner of the magazine she works for and Dean Martin's uncle, wearing nothing but a towel.

A very officious house detective, Jack Weston, spots her in said towel as she's leaving the room. It turns out that her boss had passed away that night and Weston's beady little mind suspects scandal. The rest of the film is that proverbial comedy of errors.

Though it's not heard in the film, Dean Martin did record a song All in a Night's Work for Capitol and he sold a few records of it back in the day. The song fits perfectly in his style, can't imagine anyone else doing it.

Gale Gordon and Jerome Cowan play colleagues of Dean's uncle and Cliff Robertson plays Shirley's fiancé, a veterinarian. Dean has a fabulous scene in Robertson's office where on impulse he grabs a dog and takes the poor hound to inside so he can get a line on Robertson. He uses the fake name of Julius Hemmenschlager with Robertson. It's Dino's best scene in the film.

And Shirley gets quite plastered while nightclubbing with Robertson and his visiting parents, the stuffy Mabel Albertson and the slightly pickled Charlie Ruggles. Quite a sight to see MacLaine and Ruggles singing the school song of the Kansas Institute for Vetrinary Medicine.

One thing does puzzle me. After Weston removes the towel through the elevator door. Just how does a nude Shirley MacLaine get back to her room?
11 out of 13 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed