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Move Over, Darling
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.
Release : | 1963 |
Rating : | 6.9 |
Studio : | Arcola Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Doris Day James Garner Polly Bergen Thelma Ritter Fred Clark |
Genre : | Comedy Romance |
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Absolutely the worst movie.
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
This movie is often compared to the one it remade: My Favorite Wife. Luckily I never saw the original (although now I want to) so I didn't made this comparison and could enjoy the movie on it's own. It is also interesting to know that this movie was supposed to be made with Marilyn Monroe but she died. I actually really liked Doris Day in it and can't really imagine Monroe in it.The movie is pretty good. I liked the hilarious story and it is full of big names. I haven't seen too many old movies but I could recognize most of them. I loved seeing John Astin, Don Knotts (both before their biggest hits), Fred Clark and Thelma Ritter in it. The actors were very talented and acted in that beautiful old movies style that gives this movie an extra charm.A lot of slapstick but I ended up laughing a lot, especially in the beginning of the movie where Ellen appears and the whole thing in the hotel goes on.By the way I looked up who was Maria and oh my god, Rosa Turich was incredibly beautiful when she was younger! This special 20's movie star look.
Caught this refugee from the Sixties on television the other evening and let's just say that time has not been kind to it. Doris Day cranked out a series of bedroom comedies during one of the most turbulent periods in American history, "Move Over, Darling" is just another in Doris' canon of "chase me, honey" farces. Even when this flick (and many others like it) were splashed over drive-in screens, they were already outdated. Between the violent upheavals in the country, the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution, and youth counter-culture among other things, Doris' antics would have been embarrassing even in the Fifties.All the bedroom farces had to offer were Cinemascope and double entendres. "Move Over" has so many smarmy, smutty, and lewd jokes (all of which fall flat) you feel like you just escaped a traveling salesman convention. The wit and sparkle found in "My Favorite Wife", upon which this travesty is based is nowhere to be seen. Doris is certainly no Irene Dunne, and although square-headedly handsome, James Garner is a poor substitute for Cary Grant. Doris is way too old for Garner, so their relationship seems off from the get-go. Also floundering in this dirty joke is Polly Bergen, acting as if she can't get out of whole mess quick enough. Fill in the rest of the cast with future TV "stars", obvious indoor sets that make the Brady Bunch's yard look real, and the beginning of Doris' infatuation with terrible dynel wigs that look like white cotton candy. The whole movie looks cheap, no better than a high school play. The incessant sex jokes and innuendo drag everything down as soon as the cartoon opening credits unspool.One of the strangest fixtures in these sort of farces is the insertion of at least one "gay" joke. "Move Over" has two: future Laugh-In resident flamer Alan Sues mincing around in a non-speaking role as a court clerk, and Don Knotts. Knotts is first seen fluffing a chiffon scarf around a woman's shoe display, in an entirely lavender surrounding. He also minces, but is soon revealed as a ladies' man when Doris picks him up. It is to be supposed that audiences loved a good chuckle at the nervous nellies on display, but this sort of cheap joke went out of style in the Forties. Still, every one of Doris' movies in this genre contain at least one such scene. Perhaps the director thought it was "hip", but we'll never really know. This is a movie best forgotten and left on the shelf as a curiosity. It's nearly impossible to sit through, so watch at your own risk.
As you may know, "Move Over Darling" is a remake of the Cary Grant/Irene Dunne film "My Favorite Wife." This film copies the original almost scene-for-scene, with a few changes. I'm torn on which film is better all around, but this version fixes a few things that bothered me about the original. First of all, the reunion between the two main stars at the hotel toward the beginning is more romantic and emotional here. Also, I didn't like the ending of the original film, which felt tagged on and unsatisfying, whereas the ending to this film wrapped everything up nicely and pleasantly. This film has much better co-stars, including Don Knotts and Thelma Ritter. The only reason I do not say for sure that this film is better than the original is the fact that the original was a very funny film, which is not to say that this is unfunny, but the comedy simply doesn't measure up to the brilliance of Cary Grant. I recommend both versions, and while the original provided more laughs, this gives more emotional satisfaction, but both are enjoyable. Just don't watch them side-by-side or you may feel like you just saw the same film twice.*** out of ****
I am writing this review because I have just watched 'Move over Darling' for the first time after having been watching the original, 'My Favorite Wife' for years so I thought I'd write a review of both films and compare them.Firstly this remake is good and entertaining but not as good as the original black and white version. Although the later film does have identical dialogue in parts and James Garner and Doris Day are great in the roles, they just do not to it as good as Cary Grant and Irene Dunne done...er did. For instance, the scene where Nicholas Arden first sees his wife in the hotel lobby and he follows the lift doors closing. Hilarious and Garner does it superbly, but that was a typical Cary Grant action and no-one can do it better.The film opens with Nicholas Arden (Garner), who having lost his wife to a shipwreck five years ago, is filing his petition to get have his missing wife declared legally dead, so he can marry Bianca, a fox-clad beauty played by Polly Bergan.However, having happily made his vows and is all set to settle down with wife number two, wife number one, hilariously portrayed by Doris Day determined to get her husband, life and home back, returns after having been shipwrecked on a desert island.Garner now has to spend the rest of the movie realising that his one true love has returned and must find a kind, and considerate way to 'dump' his new bride.Add to his misery and torment, Garner's discovery that his wife has not been the lone shipwrecked victim these last five years, but has been a jungle mate to a muscle bound Adonis played by Chuck Conners, news made worse by the fact that their affectionate nicknames for each other during that time seem to have been Adam and Eve.With such 'naked' truths scratching the surface, it's not long before Garner's troubles really start as with two Mrs Arden's out and about, living, breathing, walking and talking, the authorities are starting to sit up and take notice. Bigamy is after all a crime.What is more evident in this movie is the sexual overtones which had been thoroughly censored in the first movie, but were starting to emerge more as the sixties progressed. Like Garners' attempts not only to tell his new wife of his first wife's reappearance, but his attempts to avoid having sex with her.I also like Doris Day's chat with Bianca during the massage scene where she describes 'My Favorite Wife' to draw a comparison with her own life. Her Swedish accent was a bit bad though wasn't it???Perhaps the only top marks this remake gets over it's forerunner is the title song which became Doris Day's last big hit, certainly her last top ten hit in the UK. A lovely song sung by my favourite female vocalist. In fact I preferred her talents as a singer than her talents as a comedienne, as funny as she was, which is ironic as I preferred her to see her 1940 counterpart Irene Dunne work her comedy than to sing her operettas.The one failing of both these films however is the character of Bianca, she is such a tragic figure when you think about it, she's neither nasty, vulgar, cruel, malicious or evil. Just a woman who loved a man enough to marry him, yet in both films she becomes a victim. Maybe she should have been written to be a gold-digger or a liar or a cheat, just so you don't feel so sorry for her. The Comedy can become a bit tainted and black as a result.Anyway. Not as good as the original but still a great screwball 60's sex comedy.