Move Over, Darling
1963
Action / Comedy / Romance

Move Over, Darling
1963
Action / Comedy / Romance
Plot summary
Three years into their loving marriage, with two infant daughters at home in Los Angeles, Nicholas Arden and Ellen Wagstaff Arden are on a plane that goes down in the South Pacific. Although most passengers manage to survive the incident, Ellen presumably perishes when swept off her lifeboat, her body never recovered. Fast forward five years. Nicholas, wanting to move on with his life, has Ellen declared legally dead. Part of that moving on includes getting remarried, this time to a young woman named Bianca Steele, who, for their honeymoon, he plans to take to the same Monterrey resort where he and Ellen spent their honeymoon. On that very same day, Ellen is dropped off in Los Angeles by the Navy, who rescued her from the South Pacific island where she was stranded for the past five years. She asks the Navy not to publicize her rescue nor notify Nicholas as she wants to do so herself.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
While not original, it's fast and funny and colorful.
Plush, burlesque comedy
While on his honeymoon with a lusty, neurotic bride, widower James Garner discovers the hard way that first wife Doris Day is very much alive. Enjoyable bedroom-farce, a remake of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne's "My Favorite Wife", has a colorful supporting cast, cute kids, a fine score by Lionel Newman and, of course, Day herself, shining brightly while going from happy to sad to frantic to sentimental. Despite some forced bits (shouting from Garner and the tired jokes with the irritated judge), it's a happily brawling slapstick comedy. I loved the scene where Doris, dressed like a sailor, sees her two daughters for the first time in years ("Are you a lady or a man?" they ask her) or when she sings them to sleep and one of the girls recognizes the song, but overcome by memories says she doesn't like it. Doris gives Polly Bergen the massage of her life, trades dry quips with Thelma Ritter, flirts with Don Knotts, and gives Chuck Conners a series of karate moves that leaves him floored. It's a comedic tour-de-force for the actress. *** from ****