Move Over, Darling (1963)

Wonderful character development!

Sadly Over-hyped

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Producers: Martin Melcher, Aaron Rosenberg. Copyright 19 December 1963 by Melcher/Arcola Productions. Released through 20th Century- Fox. New York opening at the Astor: 25 December 1963. U.S. release: December 1963. U.K. release: 8 March 1964. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,290 feet. 103 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Successful lawyer Nicholas Arden (James Garner) goes before Judge Bryson (Edgar Buchanan) in Los Angeles with his fiancée, Bianca Steele (Polly Bergen) to: 1) petition the court to declare his former wife, Ellen Arden (Doris Day), legally dead, since she has been missing for five years following an airplane crash in the Pacific; 2) request the court to marry him to Bianca. This done, the newlyweds are happily on their way by car to their honeymoon in Monterey. Meanwhile, at the Naval base at nearby San Pedro, a submarine lands with Ellen, who has been rescued from a desert isle.NOTES: A re-make of "My Favorite Wife" (1940) starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick.The script was originally refurbished for Marilyn Monroe as "Something's Got To Give".COMMENT: A mild comedy, rather flatly directed and rather too enthusiastically played, considering the threadbare and overly familiar nature of the material. Doris Day sings two songs of equally forgettable quality. (I'm told that her son Terry Melcher helped out with the composition of the title tune).OTHER VIEWS: Feeble frolic. — New York Times.Heavy-handed and fundamentally irrelevant farce sequences are attached to an intrinsically surefire premise. — Variety.This one is just awful. Oh, Doris Day is just fine. She has a nice comedic style, mugs real good, and is right in there with the fast and slow burns and the double takes, but there's precious little else in this hokey, pretentious razz-ma-tazz. Garner is, let's not mince words, not the best farce man around... Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark and Don Knotts are wasted, but then so was our time. — Robert Salmaggi in the N.Y. Herald Tribune.A brightly colored mess. Suspense is lost because it would be inconceivable in the Hollywood scheme of things to have the country's No. 1 box office star lose her husband to Polly Bergen (who was unranked in the last exhibitor's poll)... Those with weak stomachs should leave before the scene in which Doris Day and the children admit they belong to each other. — Hollis Alpert in the Saturday Review.

Yep. That's right, all you vintage Rom/Com movie fans - I seriously think that this utterly unbearable film (from 1963) really needs to be re-titled "You Make Me Sick, Darling!" (asap) Yep. It sure does.OK. It was irritating enough that this badly-conceived "one-note-joke-of-a-movie" had its idiotic situation milked completely bone-dry - But - On top of that - The totally irksome, scenery-chewing antics of both its female leads (Doris Day and Polly Bergen) was so downright revolting, all round, that it made my skin just crawl like you wouldn't believe.Apparently - "Move Over's" story of bigamy was geared to an "adult" audience - And, yet - With the infantile way in which this subject matter was handled - It was one super-dumb bit of story-telling that made the likes of Sesame Street appear risqué by comparison.... Hey! I ain't kidding around here, folks!

The plot for this film has been used a couple of times in literature, and a few times with variations in movies. A man is lost at sea and presumed dead, so in time his wife marries another man, only to have the first husband return. "Enoch Arden" was an 1864 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson that was made into movies in 1911, 1914 and 1915. The first and last were short films. Then, W. Somerset Maugham wrote a play with a similar plot in 1919. It was called "Home and Beauty," but the name was changed to "Too Many Husbands" for a 1940 Columbia Pictures film that starred Fred MacMurray, Jean Arthur and Melvyn Douglas. It was revised and made into a 1955 musical, "Three for the Show," starring Betty Grable, Jack Lemmon and Gower Champion.While "Husbands" was being made at Columbia (released in March of 1940), a team of writers for RKO Pictures had borrowed the original idea and flipped it over. This time it was a woman who was lost at sea and presumed dead, and the husband was just getting married again when his first wife reappears. The film, "My Favorite Wife," came out in May 1940, starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott. While both films did well, the later was a bigger hit than "Too Many Husbands." After the 1940 hit, "My Favorite Wife," 20th Century Fox wanted to remake the movie around 1960. It was to have a substantial makeover under the title, "Something's Gotta Give," and was to star Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin. It didn't happen. In a nutshell, Monroe was fired for failing to show up at most shootings. Then Dean Martin quit if Monroe wasn't going to be in it. Finally, Monroe was back in, but she died a few days later of a barbiturate overdoseThere's a lot more to the story, and one wonders what to believe. My DVD of "Move Over, Darling," has a bonus special documentary short that delves into the movie that wasn't made and some of the sordid details. But, after seeing the original 1940 story, and then this 1963 film with Doris Day and James Garner, I can't picture a Monroe-Martin combination in the same type of story. I think it would have gone over like a lead balloon. So, with a lot of investment in the film otherwise, Fox picked it up again, dusted it off and rewrote the script, and put out "Move Over Darling" in 1963. The film is a more modern version of the original, with some changes. In the original, Ellen Arden is lost at sea for seven years after the ship she was on sank. Her children were a boy and a girl. In this remake, she was lost five year after her plane crashed in the ocean. Both of her kids are girls. Both supporting casts are excellent. And, while Day and Garner are very good as Ellen and Nick Arden in this film. they are just a notch below the performances of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the original. The original script also is a bit more crispy and witty. One very good addition in this film is Day's character impersonating a "Svedish" nurse-masseuse. Doris Day never won an Oscar in her talented career of singing, dancing and acting. But she won Golden Globe Henrietta awards as the world's favorite female actress four separate years. The whole family should enjoy this film. It's just one of those situations when an original has such a character of its own – with its specific cast – that any new rendition with another cast can't quite match the humor of the first. My DVD had a bonus special that I found very interesting. It was about the origin of the story. "Enoch Arden II" was the first film of the story based on a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It was made as a short in 1911 by D.W. Griffith. It followed the original tragedy of the poem.

Move Over Darling with James Garner and Doris Day which is a remake of the RKO classic My Favorite Wife is probably better known for being the end result of the disaster known as Something's Gotta Give. That of course is Marilyn Monroe's legendary last film that she never finished.Looking over the cast of the unfinished Something's Gotta Give I have to say though I don't think it would have been Monroe's greatest film, the rest of the cast was pretty good. When 20th Century Fox fired Marilyn, Dean Martin also quit and the whole film was scrapped. At that point it was just decided to redo the whole thing with an entire new cast and apparently no one survived the change.I also imagine that a serious rewrite would have to be done in order that a role originally cast for Marilyn Monroe could fit Doris Day. Seeing Doris on the screen I can't imagine that Chuck Connors or in Marilyn's case, Tom Tryon, would have been unsuccessfully trying to catch her on a desert island for five years.The story as originally written by Sam and Bella Spewack has James Garner going to court to get his first wife, missing for five years after a forced ocean landing, declared legally dead. He wants to marry Polly Bergen. But wouldn't you know it, a Navy submarine rescues Doris Day at just that time and when she hears about Garner's new bride, it's Doris off to spoil that honeymoon.Polly Bergen was just great as the picture of sexual frustration on that honeymoon. Although I can certainly see Cyd Charisse in that same spot with Dean Martin. Edgar Buchanan is great as the crusty judge who declares Doris legally dead the first time and then has all the parties and then some in court to try and untangle things. That role was supposed to go to John McGiver and certainly those two would have been different types.It goes that way up and down the cast list, Don Knotts substituting for Wally Cox as the timid shoe salesman Doris has impersonate Chuck Connors so Garner won't be jealous. And I can't see much difference with Phil Silvers as opposed to John Astin as the smarmy insurance man. One thing I did notice is that there was no equivalent parts in Something's Gotta Give for Fred Clark the hotel manager and Thelma Ritter as Garner's mother. My guess is that whoever was supposed to play those roles may never have got on camera because there was no way to shoot around them.I suppose the best thing to do is not speculate, but enjoy the funny comedy that did come out of all the grief 20th Century Fox had with this film. Certainly only Doris Day could convince you that in five years she never succumbed to Chuck Connors.