Move Over, Darling

"I'd like to know what he thinks he's doing."

I'd like to know how he does it."

Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Day) was lost at sea in a plane crash.  Five years later her husband Nick (Garner) has her declared legally dead and then marries Bianca Steele (Bergen).  That same day the Navy rescues Ellen from a deserted island.  She rushes home to reunite with Nick and their young daughters, Jenny (Pami Lee) and Didi (Leslie Farrell), but finds that the girls don't recognize her and Nick has moved on.  Nick's mother Grace (Ritter) encourages her to find Nick before his new marriage is consummated.

Nick is thrilled to see Ellen, but doesn't know how to break the news to his emotional new wife.  Matters are further complicated when he learns that Ellen was not alone on the island: she spent 5 years alone on the island with hunk Stephen Burkett (Connors).  Can Ellen save her marriage, or will she have to startover alone?


This film has a complicated history.  It is a remake of the 1940 film My Favorite Wife, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.  They planned to remake the film again as, Something's Got to Give.  It was planned as a Marilyn Monroe comeback, with Dean Martin as the male lead and Cyd Charisse as the other woman, under the direction of George Cukor.  Monroe was fired from the film, but when Martin refused to work with anyone else she was rehired.  However, Monroe died before filming could be completed.  The film was never finished, but the studio wanted to make the film anyway after sinking a considerable sum into it.  They changed the title, director, parts of the script, and the cast (with the exception of Thelma Ritter).  The film utilized the set and some of the costumes from the film it replaced.

This was Doris Day and James Garner's second film together (they starred in The Thrill of It All, also released in 1963).  It was also Day's second film with Ritter and director Michael Gordon (they all worked on Pillow Talk in 1959).  The cast is great.  Day and Garner have great chemistry and are charming and believable as a comfortable married couple.  You can tell it was based on a screwball comedy and I can't wait to check out the Grant/Dunne version (which Day's character explains in the film).  Thelma Ritter steals the show as the meddling mother-in-law.  Ritter typically plaid the smart-talking best-friend or assistant or mother, and always managed to steal the show.  I found Polly Bergen's character grating and wished her scenes were shorter.  There are other memorable small roles, such as Don Knotts as the shoe clerk that Ellen pays to play Stephen, John Astin as the insurance man, and Edgar Buchanan as the judge.

I wanted to like this film.  I like the cast and premise is enough to make a funny film, but I didn't love it.  There are several laugh out loud moments, such as Ellen in the car wash and Ellen giving Bianca a massage, but it was missing something.  The performances are good, but I didn't love Day's Ellen and I don't particularly want to watch it again.  It is good, but not great.  I really wish the Monroe/Martin version existed, just for comparison's sake.  More than anything else, I really want to watch the Grant/Dunne version.  I still love Day and Garner (and Ritter), but not here.

Like most Day films, she performs the title song, "Move Over, Darling" and sings another song during the film.

Move Over, Darling (1963) 103 minutes
Director: Michael Gordon
Starring: Doris Day as Ellen Wagstaff Arden
James Garner as Nick Arden
Polly Bergen as Bianca Steele Arden
Thelma Ritter as Grace Arden
Chuck Connors as Stephen Burkett
Edgar Buchanan as Judge Bryson