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Move Over Darling (1963)

 

Move Over, Darling is a 1963 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Gordon and starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen. It was filmed in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope, and released by 20th Century Fox.[3] The supporting cast features Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark, Don Knotts, Elliott Reid, and Chuck Connors.

The film is a remake of the 1940 screwball comedy film My Favorite Wife, starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, and Gail Patrick. In between these films, an unfinished version, titled Something's Got to Give, began shooting in 1962, directed by George Cukor and starring Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, and Cyd Charisse.

Move Over, Darling was chosen as the 1964 Royal Film Performance, and had its UK premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on February 24, 1964, in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

At the 21st Golden Globe Awards, Day was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy but lost to Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce.

Plot

Lawyer Nick Arden is in court to get two petitions approved: he wants his first wife Ellen Wagstaff Arden declared legally dead after she went missing five years before when the plane they were traveling on crashed into the Pacific Ocean and he wants to marry psychoanalyst Bianca Steele. After some confusion, Judge Bryson declares Ellen legally dead and marries Nick and Bianca, who then immediately leave for Monterey for their honeymoon.

On the same day, Ellen returns to shore on a U.S. Navy submarine, which had rescued her from a deserted island where she had spent the last five years. When she returns to her and Nick's home in Los Angeles, she encounters her young daughters, who do not remember her, but she cannot bring herself to tell them the truth. Shocked at Ellen's return, her mother-in-law Grace Arden tells her of the new marriage and that the honeymoon will be at the same hotel where Nick and Ellen spent theirs. At Grace's urging, Ellen flies to Monterey to prevent the consummation of the marriage.

Ellen arrives at the hotel and reveals her presence to Nick, who is overjoyed to reunite with her. Ellen requests that he tell Bianca the truth first. When Nick returns to a confused and angry Bianca, Ellen eavesdrops on their conversation. Nick fails to tell Bianca the truth and Ellen leaves the hotel angrily. When Nick sees Ellen depart, he fakes an injury to prevent further advances by Bianca.

The next day, when Nick returns home with Bianca, he finds Ellen posing as a Swedish masseuse employed by Grace to help him with his back. As Ellen and Bianca tussle, an insurance adjuster arrives with papers for a Mrs. Arden to sign regarding a Stephen Burkett. Nick is informed that Ellen was on the deserted island with a man called Stephen Burkett for the whole five years and they were rescued together. They jokingly called each other "Adam" and "Eve". Nick is furious that Ellen did not tell him about Burkett and confronts her. She tells him that Burkett is a nerd and that nothing happened between them.

Later, on Grace's advice, Ellen convinces an awkward-looking shoe clerk to pose as Burkett. Nick is not convinced and looks for Burkett himself. When he finds him at the swimming pool of the Beverly Hills Hotel, he notices to his horror that Burkett is young, attractive, and athletic. Nick takes Ellen to the same pool bar, intending to confront her with Burkett. She confesses the truth about Burkett but insists that nothing happened between the two in the five years and asks for Nick's forgiveness. However, when she spots Burkett, she angrily accuses Nick of trying to humiliate her and storms off.

Shortly after Nick tells Bianca the truth about Ellen, he is arrested for bigamy, learning that Grace reported him earlier to force him to choose between Ellen and Bianca. This leads to another chaotic court hearing before Judge Bryson, who is even more confused when he is entrusted with several matters: Nick's charge of bigamy, Bianca's request to annul their marriage, Ellen's request to void her death certificate, and Ellen's request for a divorce from Nick. Bryson dismisses the bigamy charge, annuls Nick and Bianca's marriage, declares Ellen alive again and postpones judgement on the divorce proceedings between Ellen and Nick. When Burkett arrives and expresses his desire to marry Ellen, Nick leaves in a jealous rage. Ellen then rebuffs Burkett's advances and leaves.

When Ellen returns home several hours later, devastated, she learns that Nick has already told his daughters that she is their mother, and they all happily reunite.

Cast

Production


The film's script was written by Hal Kanter and Jack Sher, reworking an earlier script written by Arnold Schulman, Nunnally Johnson, and Walter Bernstein that was an update of 1940's My Favorite Wife by Leo McCarey and Samuel and Bella Spewack. The script includes a reference to My Favorite Wife during the scene in which Ellen gives Bianca a massage.

The story is a comedic update of the 1864 poem "Enoch Arden" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the poem's title is the source of the lead characters' surname. This was the seventh film based on "Enoch Arden".

The film was originally to be a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe under the working title of Something's Got to Give, with George Cukor as director. Dean Martin was cast as Nick Arden after initial choice James Garner was committed to doing The Great Escape.[4] Monroe was fired early in the original production cycle following repeated absences on filming days, ultimately appearing in only about 30 minutes of usable film. At first, it was announced that Lee Remick would step into Monroe's place; though some press pictures were released and some scenes were shot with Remick, Martin balked at working with anyone but Monroe. Monroe was rehired but died before she could resume filming, leaving the original version incomplete. Unable to complete the film, and having already sunk a considerable amount of money into the production and sets, 20th Century Fox went ahead with the project, albeit with a new title, new director Michael Gordon, and a new cast (with the exception of Thelma Ritter, who was also cast as Grace Arden in the Cukor version). Garner, now available following the completion of his work in The Great Escape, was cast as Nick Arden.

Garner accidentally broke Day's rib during the massage scene in which he pulls Day off of Bergen. He was not aware of what had happened until the next day, when he felt the bandage while putting his arms around Day.

The film utilized most of the interiors and stage-built exteriors from the original Cukor production for the Arden home, which was based on Cukor's Beverly Hills home. The on-location exterior scenes at the Arden home were filmed about three miles west, at 377 South Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills. The original neoclassical house seen in the film has since been replaced by an enormous Italianate structure.

The producers scheduled the scene with Day riding through a car wash for the last day of shooting because they feared that the chemicals in the detergents might affect her complexion. When the scene went off without a hitch, they admitted their ploy to Day, then used the story in promotional materials for the film.

Soundtrack

Reception

Box office

Move Over, Darling grossed $12,705,882 in the United States,[2] becoming one of the highest-grossing of 1963 and helping keep 20th Century Fox afloat after the losses it had incurred in the making of Cleopatra. Move Over, Darling earned $6 million in U.S. theatrical rentals.[6]

According to Fox records, the film was profitable, as it earned $8,750,000, exceeding the $8,300,000 needed in order to break even.[7]

Critical response

The film has received generally mixed reviews from critics. In 1963, a review in Variety stated: "Doris Day and James Garner play it to the hilt, comically, dramatically and last, but not least (particularly in the case of the former), athletically. What is missing in their portrayals is a light touch, the ability to humorously convey with a subtle eyelash-bat or eyebrow-arch what it tends to take them a kick in the shins to accomplish."[8]

However, more recent reviews have been more positive. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews praised James Garner's performance[9] and Sue Heal of Radio Times gave the film four out of five stars, stating: "Slick, utterly professional and without a wasted scene, this is a sheer delight from start to finish."[10]

Novelization


Slightly in advance of the film's release, as was the custom of the era, a paperback novelization of the film was published by Dell Books. The author was renowned crime and western novelist Marvin H. Albert, who also made something of a cottage industry out of movie tie-ins. He seems to have been the most prolific screenplay novelizer of the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, and, during that time, the preeminent specialist at light comedy.

The book can be classified as an "inferred novelization" as none of the screenwriters is given attribution, but the copyright is assigned to Twentieth Century Fox. The cover displays a painting of Garner carrying Day in his arms against an all-white background, a typical Dell cover to a romantic comedy tie-in. The book also contains a four-page insert of black-and-white movie stills. The cover price is 40¢.

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Lover Come Back (1961)

 

Lover Come Back is a 1961 American Eastmancolor romantic comedy film released by Universal-International Pictures and directed by Delbert Mann. It stars Doris Day and Rock Hudson and is their second time working together. The supporting cast includes Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Ann B. Davis, and Donna Douglas.

Day, Hudson and Randall appeared in three movies together, the others being Pillow Talk (1959) and Send Me No Flowers (1964).

The story is similar to that of Pillow Talk in that it includes mistaken identity as a key plot device. Although not as well known as Pillow Talk, the script by Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

The film was co-produced by Hudson (through his 7 Pictures Corporation), Day (through her Arwin Productions, and Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning (through their Nob Hill Productions).[3][4]

Plot

In a Manhattan advertising agency, Jerry Webster, a Madison Avenue ad executive, has achieved success not through hard work or intelligence but by wining and dining his clients and setting them up on dates with attractive women.

Jerry's equal and sworn enemy at a rival agency is Carol Templeton. Although she has never met him, Carol is disgusted by Jerry's unethical tactics and reports him to the Ad Council. Jerry avoids trouble with his usual aplomb, sending a comely chorus girl, Rebel Davis, to seduce the council members.

In exchange for her cooperation, Jerry promised Rebel a spot in commercials, so he goes ahead and arranges shoots of some featuring her for "VIP", a nonexistent product. He has no intention of allowing them to be shown, but the perplexed company president, Pete Ramsey, orders them broadcast on television.

This means Jerry must come up with a product quickly. He bribes a Nobel Prize winning chemist, Dr. Linus Tyler, to create one. When Carol mistakes Jerry for Tyler, he pretends to be the chemist, so that in her attempt to steal the account from Jerry she is actually wining, dining, golfing, and frolicking at the beach with him as Tyler.

Carol ultimately learns the truth. Her employer figures it out. When she realizes she has been deceived she leaves Jerry stranded at the beach, naked.

Appalled, she once more reports him to the Ad Council, this time for promoting a product that does not exist. Jerry, however, arrives at the hearing with VIP, a mint-flavored candy Dr. Tyler has just created. He provides many free samples to everyone there, including Carol.

VIP turns out to be intoxicating, each piece having the same effect as a triple martini. Its extreme effects lead to a one-night stand between Carol (who has a low tolerance for alcohol) and her bitter rival, Jerry, in a motel in Maryland, complete with a marriage license.

Carol has the marriage annulled. Representatives from the liquor industry visit Jerry, saying he will be paid well to pull VIP off the market and destroy the formula. Jerry convinces them to give Carol's firm 25% of its $60 million ($600 million today) annual advertising expenditures, then burns a confession that he has just signed that they mistake for the formula. He leaves New York to work in his company's San Francisco branch—only to be called back nine months later to remarry Carol in a hospital maternity ward, just before she gives birth to their child.

Cast

Songs

Although not a musical, the film contains two songs sung by Day: "Lover Come Back" during the opening credits, and "Should I Surrender" as she contemplates what to do with her feelings for Linus just before finding out he was Jerry passing himself off as Dr. Tyler.

Novelization

Slightly in advance of the film's release, as was the custom of the era, a paperback novelization of the screenplay was published by Gold Medal Books. The author was a renowned crime and western novelist Marvin H. Albert, who also made something of a cottage industry out of movie tie-ins. He was the most prolific screenplay novelizer of the late '50s through the '60s and, during that time, the preeminent specialist at light comedy. Albert also wrote the novelizations for one of Doris Day, Rock Hudson, and Tony Randall's other films together Pillow Talk (1959), and another romantic-comedy starring Doris Day, Move Over, Darling (1963)

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Pillow Talk (1959)

 


PILLOW TALK (1959)

In New York, the interior decorator Jan Morrow and the wolfish composer Brad Allen share a party line, but Brad keeps it busy most of the time flirting with his girlfriends. They do not know each other but Jan hates Brads since she needs the telephone for her business and can not use it. Coincidently Jan's wealthy client Jonathan Forbes that woos her is the best friend of Brad and he comments with him that he feels an unrequited love for Jan, who is a gorgeous woman. When Brad meets Jan by chance in a restaurant, he poses as a naive tourist from Texas named Rex Stetson and seduces her. But Jonathan hires a private eye to find who Rex Stetson is.

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Send Me No Flowers (1964)

 

Send Me No Flowers is a 1964 American romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay by Julius Epstein, based on the play of the same name by Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore, which had a brief run on Broadway in 1960.[2] It stars Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall. Following Pillow Talk (1959) and Lover Come Back (1961), it is the third and final film in which Hudson, Day, and Randall starred together.

The title tune was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach.

Plot

George Kimball, a hypochondriac, lives with his wife Judy in the suburbs. Judy learns from the milkman that their neighbors, the Bullards, are getting a divorce, and shares the news with George.

Over lunch, George is appalled as a bachelor acquaintance, Winston Burr, gleefully describes how he contacts women who are getting divorced and pretends to console them, hoping to seduce them while they are vulnerable.

George visits his doctor and longtime friend, Ralph Morrissey, after experiencing chest pains. He overhears the doctor discussing on the phone a patient who only has a few weeks to live. George assumes that Morrissey is talking about him and is distraught. On the train home, he tells his friend, Arnold Nash, that he will die soon. He has decided not to tell Judy, knowing it will upset her. Arnold solemnly assures George that he will deliver the eulogy at his funeral.

That night, George dreams about Judy marrying Vito, an irresponsible young deliveryman more interested in her inheritance than in her. He visits a funeral home operated by Mr. Akins to buy a burial plot for three people, including a prospective new husband for Judy, giving him a $1000 check made out to "Cash", so that Judy will not discover what the check is for. He decides to find Judy a new husband and asks Arnold to help him.

On a golf outing, Judy's golf cart malfunctions and she is saved by her old college beau Bert Power, now a Texas oil baron. George, jealous over Bert's attentions to Judy, reluctantly agrees with Arnold that Bert would be a great husband for her. During an evening out, George forces Judy to dance and talk with Bert. When George runs into the newly divorced Linda Bullard, who is there with Winston, he takes her to the coat room and warns her about Winston's intentions. She thanks him and kisses him in gratitude. When Judy sees them, she storms out, thinking that he is pushing her to spend time with Bert so that he will feel less guilty about having an affair with Linda. George then tells Judy that he is dying. She is naturally skeptical because of George's history of hypochondria, so he tells her that she can call Dr. Morrissey for confirmation, which convinces her that he is telling the truth.

Judy insists that George use a wheelchair to conserve his energy. However, when she sees Dr. Morrissey and he tells her that George is fine, she thinks George is lying to wriggle out of the consequences of his affair. She rolls him out of the house in his wheelchair and locks him out, announcing her intention to divorce him. George spends the night at Arnold's house, during which time his various demands and idiosyncrasies cause Arnold to strike, one by one, many of the complimentary remarks about George he had planned on making in his eulogy. The next day, George desperately asks Arnold for advice on how to stop Judy from leaving him. Arnold insists that George, although he is innocent, must pretend to confess to Judy that he has had an affair, assure her it is over, and beg for forgiveness.

Judy leaves to buy a train ticket to Reno. George follows her to the train station, where, following Arnold's advice, he concocts a story about an affair he had with a Dolores Yellowstone (Judy has learned from Linda why she was kissing him) and shows Judy the stub from the $1000 check, made out to "Cash", that he had given "Dolores" so she could leave him and start a new life in New York. The scheme backfires as Judy refuses to forgive him, despite his attempt to renege on his "confession". When she goes home to retrieve her bags, Mr. Akins happens to drop by to deliver the burial contracts for George's and Judy's plots and shows her George's check. He also tells her that George had bought a third plot for her prospective second husband. He is mortified to learn that Judy still did not know about George's surprise. Judy now realizes that George had made up the Dolores Yellowstone story. When George arrives at the house, she lovingly "forgives" him. Winston arrives at the house hoping to make Judy his latest conquest, but George knocks him cold and presents Judy with the flowers Winston was carrying.

Cast

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $9,129,247 in the United States.[1]

Critical response

The film was the last comedy for Doris Day and Rock Hudson and received mixed reviews. In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called it "a beautiful farce situation" and added, "Julius Epstein has written it ... with nimble inventiveness and style. And Norman Jewison has directed so that it stays within bounds of good taste, is never cruel or insensitive, and makes something good of every gag."[3]

Variety felt "[it] doesn't carry the same voltage, either in laughs or originality, as Doris Day and Rock Hudson's two previous entries."[4]

Time Out London calls it "probably the best of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson vehicles ... nicely set in a pastel-coloured suburban dreamworld, but the ineradicable blandness gets you down in the end."[5]

Channel 4 says, "it would be churlish to complain that it is a little bland, fairly predictable and has an unsurprising happy ending. There's enough humour in the ensuing misunderstandings and enough skill in the playing and direction to stifle not just criticism but even the odd yawn."[6]

Awards and nominations

AwardCategoryNominee(s)Result
Laurel AwardsTop Male Comedy PerformanceRock HudsonNominated
Top Female Comedy PerformanceDoris DayWon

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