All in a nights work shows everything I love to watch in a movie. Its fun, sassy and has the great one liner, Oh Mr Ryder. Dean Martin and Shirley Maclaine have obvious chemistry in this flick and its just a classic example of how romance used to exist. Although it is a typical mistaken Identity plot for a film of its age it has more wit than others seen at that time. Dean Martin really shows in this film his sophistication as an actor and is at all times Mr Cool. Shirley Maclaine is an actress I have never really watched in the past but she sparkles in this. The ending would have to be my favourite scene, I love this movie and its a classic I can watch again and again.

.Dean Martin really goes out on a limb (eye roll) and portrays a playboy named Tony Ryder..am I crazy or are all 60's comedy playboy leads given names like that? Or maybe Chad Stone? Anyway, Martin is the only relative of a wealthy publishing czar, so when his rich uncle dies in a Florida hotel he inherits the mega-million dollar business. There's just one problem: hotel detective Jack Weston tells him that he saw a woman in a towel running from uncle's room..and she dropped a unique earring with a Chinese symbol on her way out.

The typical board--all old white guys who only want to keep their cu$hy jobs, are convinced the empire of 'family friendly' magazines would be hurt if such a scandal was uncovered, so they hire Weston to find the woman and offer her a nice sum for a nice NDA. It turns out it's no coincidence that Shirley MacLaine (a researcher at the company) was in Florida too..in that hotel..and yes, in uncle's room. MacLaine ended up in there while escaping the advances of another old wealthy fellow after she saved him from drowning, but has no idea she's the elusive mystery woman. When she sobs loudly at the funeral while wearing the same suspect earrings, the board and Martin are convinced everything she does and says is to extract hush money from them..while she remains clueless to their attention.

Added to the mix are her conservative veterinarian fiancé, Cliff Robertson, and his judgmental mother Mabel Anderson and dad Charles Ruggles. One of the better scenes is watching Ruggles and MacLaine get tipsy at a restaurant, singing and dancing..much to the chagrin of mother and son. If you don't know how the movie is going to end, you haven't seen enough 60's rom-coms. It's the formula of mistaken identity/misunderstandings, but even with a good cast, this one falls below the Doris/Rock offerings in the genre. A nice little diversion, but nothing special

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?