Move Over, Darling (1963)
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.
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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
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.
Move Over, Darling (1963)The situation is hilarious--a man finally gives up his wife as dead in a plane crash in the South Pacific and remarries. Then she comes home, just hours after the ceremony. And in time to avoid the classic consummation at the ritzy hotel. Doris Day plays the lost wife returning home and her hubby is the charming James Garner. And Garner's mother--Day's mother in law--is played by the impeccable Thelma Ritter.So what could go wrong here? Nothing much really. It's colorful, plasticky, fun, goofy, and well written. Except that it's a remake of a more famous and in many ways better movie starring the snappy on-screen couple: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The original is called "My Favorite Wife," and I totally recommend it. It must have occurred to these newer actors that they had huge huge shoes to fill. And to make things more weird, Doris Day is basically filling in for Marilyn Monroe, who died during the filming of this same kind of plot (though this movie started the idea almost from scratch, only Ritter and some of the sets being carried over).One way to avoid comparisons is to never see the original. We all know the dangers there--who wants to only see the second or third "King Kong" or the second "The Women" and so on? But there is also the truth that Doris Day is her own commodity. She is convincingly regular, a true 50s/60s mom type for middle class America (though be sure, these are all extremely rich people here, part of the glamorizing that the audience craves). So go back to the start here--this is a well made, fast paced, silly movie in the Doris Day vein. She's the true star, though Garner does his best to be a somewhat more conventional Grant. There are a couple of scenes that will crack you up beyond the endless smaller jokes and gags. One is where Day pretends to be a Swedish masseuse and ends up "massaging" that is torturing the new wife. The other is a wonderful automatic car wash scene in a classic car with suds flying--and the top to the car goes down by mistake. Day is an amazing sport for all of this.
This movie is a remake of My Favorite Wife, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, which I gave a 10 to. It's been a while since I've watched it the latter though, and at first I was hard-pressed to understand why I felt I liked it better than this remake, but it soon enough came to me.Both movies are vehicles of their leading ladies and tailored to suit their characters. Hence, with Doris Day, there is more slapstick humor and her character comes across as more "cutely" petulant. Irene Dunne is classier and she has an air of benevolence. Now I love Day but with this story, I feel that Dunne's character is more appropriate. And of course Cary Grant is more charismatic than James Garner, even if the latter is pretty hot in this movie.What Move Over has going for it is the queen of wisecracking supporting actresses, Thelma Ritter, who is as fun here as any of her other movies. Also, without the disadvantageous comparison to My Favorite Wife, this movie is a charming enough romantic comedy in itself.
This remake of "My Favorite Wife" follows the original fairly closely for the most part. It wisely changes the ending a little, as the last part was weak in the original. Day and Garner are well-cast in the Irene Dunne and Cary Grant roles, and there is a funny reference to the earlier film, but was this remake really necessary? Ritter is fine as Garner's frazzled mother, but Connors is not as good as Randolph Scott was in the original. This started out as a Marilyn Monroe vehicle, "Something's Gotta Give," but was abandoned after production problems and was left incomplete upon her death, replaced with this cast and crew. Interesting change from sex symbol Monroe to virginal Day!