''All in a Night's Work'' is a 1961 American
Technicolor
Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...
romantic screwball comedy film
Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary charact ...
directed by
Joseph Anthony
Joseph Anthony (born Joseph Deuster; May 24, 1912 – January 20, 1993) was an American playwright, actor, and director. He made his film acting debut in the 1934 film ''Hat, Coat, and Glove'' and his theatrical acting debut in a 1935 productio ...
and starring
Dean Martin
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...
and
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24, 1934) is an American actress and author. With a career spanning over 70 years, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Shirley MacLaine, numerous accolades, including a ...
.
Plot
Tony Ryder's uncle, the wealthy publisher of magazines, has just died. The young playboy Tony inherits the paper but is left with a board of directors that thinks he's unsuited for the task, plus a
hotel detective
A hotel detective is a person in plain clothes hired to monitor the security of a hotel and investigate various security, morality, or rule violations therein. They are distinct from uniformed security guards employed by a hotel.
Hotel detectiv ...
who thinks Tony should know about a girl who was seen running away from his uncle's Palm Beach hotel room, wearing nothing but a Turkish towel and an earring, on the night of his death.
Tony discovers that the young lady in question, Katie Robbins, is employed in his own research department. The board decrees that he must send in the detective to watch her and head off any attempts at blackmail. But the more time Tony spends trying to get Katie to open up about what her relationship to his uncle was, the less he cares. Complications ensue in the form of Ms. Robbins's fiancé—he's a strait-laced veterinarian—and the board's insistence that Katie be silenced at all costs.
Tony goes as far as kidnapping a dog off the street, so he can gain access to Kingsley's veterinary clinic and size him up. When the dog's muscular owner appears, Tony beats a hasty retreat and leaves Kingsley to take the heat.
When Kingsley's strait-laced parents come to New York to meet Katie, they quickly discover her inability to cook and her low tolerance for alcohol. The father, somewhat henpecked, secretly enjoys a grand tour of Manhattan's nightspots.
Kingsley Jr. is exposed as an unworthy "Mamma's Boy", and Tony demonstrates his loyalty by proposing to Katie in a crowded elevator of strangers.
Cast
References
External links
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{{Joseph Anthony
1961 films
1961 romantic comedy films
1960s American films
1960s English-language films
1960s screwball comedy films
American films based on plays
American romantic comedy films
American screwball comedy films
English-language romantic comedy films
Films based on multiple works
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Joseph Anthony
Films produced by Hal B. Wallis
Films scored by André Previn
Films set in Florida
Films set in New York City
Paramount Pictures films