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 she is swept off the lifeboat she is on. Her body is not recovered. Fast forward five years. Nicky, wanting now 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 asked the Navy not to publicize her rescue or notify Nicky as she wanted to do so herself. Upon arrival back home, a shocked Grace Arden, Nicky's mother, informs Ellen that Nicky just got married that morning and that she, as his true wife as opposed to Bianca being his bride, should go to Monterrey to tell Nicky she's alive. She does so. Although Nicky is equally as shocked as his mother was when he sees Ellen for the first time, it places him in a difficult position. Although he loves Ellen and wants more than anything to be with her, he has Bianca's feelings to take into consideration. As such, he finds it difficult to tell Bianca, who is in a honeymoon amorous mood. Nicky's inability to tell Bianca irks Ellen, who believes it is a manifestation of his love for Bianca over her. Nicky, however, ends up with questions of his own about Ellen's faithfulness and love for him when he learns that Ellen was not all alone on that island but with a handsome man named Stephen Burkett, the two who pet nicknamed each other Adam and Eve. Nicky's questions about her faithfulness increase when she purposefully withholds information about Stephen from him.
It's sheer bedlam from morning 'til night ... !
Judge Bryson: Well, are you gonna answer the question or is she going to talk for you the rest of your life?
California Highway 1, Mugu Rock, Ventura County, California, USA
(outdoor driving scenes)
10300 Wyton Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
(home of Ellen Wagstaff Arden)
Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows - 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, USA
Wyton Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA
(home of Ellen Wagstaff Arden)
Crown Car Wash - 10399 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA
(Famous car wash scene)
The movie that Ellen (Doris Day) describes to Bianca (Polly Bergen) while giving her a massage is My Favorite Wife (1940), of which this is a remake.
Doris Day wrote in her 1975 autobiography that because of her cracked ribs, she was so mummified with tape and bandages under her costumes it was difficult to breathe and painful to laugh.
In bonus feature on the DVD release, Polly Bergen admitted she had misgivings about playing "second banana" to Doris Day. Day was the most popular actress in the world at the time and Bergen expected her to behave like a diva. However, Bergen admitted to "falling in love" with Day, finding her to be extremely charming, funny and generous.
A re-shot version of Something's Got to Give (1962), the never completed film Marilyn Monroe was working on when she died. With Dean Martin in the James Garner role.
Doris Day proved what a trouper she truly was when James Garner accidentally cracked 2 of her ribs (during the massage scene, when he pulls her off Polly Bergen). Garner wasn't even aware that Day was injured until the next day, when he felt the bandage while putting his arms around her.
Continuity
When Ellen is in the hotel room with Nick, her wig changes in mid-scene. Obviously, the scene was shot more than once with different hair and then spliced together.
During the scene in which Nick is watching Adam perform on the trampoline, the couple in the corner directly behind him get up and leave their table three different times.
When Nicholas is chasing Ellen in the car after leaving the hotel, they speed through a car dealership. Cars flee the building to allow Ellen to pass through without accident. Once Ellen's gone, the cars back into the store only to drive out again to allow Nick's pursuing taxi safe passage. The scene is spliced together rather than done in one shot, as evidenced by a green car parked street side in the background that suddenly disappears before the taxi drives through.
At the Monterey hotel, the sun is coming from above, but the clouds in the background are lit from the sun setting behind them.
When Ellen wants to phone the house, the operator gives her the number. Later, Bianca gives her psychiatrist a different number.
Revealing mistakes
When the judge is reading his court briefs, it looks very much like pages of a script instead.
When Ellen rips the towel off of Bianca, to whom she is giving a massage, the towel moves a little too high and whatever Bianca is wearing underneath is partly visible.
Nick asks the judge to turn from page 4 to 7 in the brief. When the judge says "Here it is: page 7," he has turned over only two (one-sided) pages and would actually be on 6. (And just before he does this, the number of already-overturned pages differs from one camera angle to the other.)
Miscellaneous
Since Ellen was on a South Pacific island for five years she should have a darker tan.
Audio/visual unsynchronized
When Ellen is in the car wash, she pushes some buttons. It is obvious that the audio is unsynchronized.
Plot holes
A USN sub rescuing people from an island would certainly radio their data home, thus ruining the surprise element necessary to the plot. The 1940 Portuguese tramp steamer ("My Favorite Wife") works much better.
With Nick as passenger, Ellen drives his car to a particular hotel. Being a lawyer and knowing Ellen has been away from civilization for five years with no time to renew her driver's license, Nick should full-well know he's liable for allowing her, an unlicensed driver, behind the wheel of his car and, therefore, not allow it (especially as he wants to guarantee getting her to the right hotel to "accidentally" run into Stephen Burkett).
Strangely, despite their belief that Ellen has drowned, no one in the Arden household is at all concerned about leaving two very young children unattended in a swimming pool.
Character error
In the beginning, Grace offers to make Ellen a drink. Ellen quips, "You know very well, I don't drink". Later, poolside just before we meet Steve, Nick asks Ellen if she would like a scotch. After three years of marriage, Nick should know Ellen doesn't drink.
Nicholas Arden, a lawyer, in the climactic court room scene initially addresses the judge as "Yes sir" instead of "Your Honor", although he does gets it right later. An experienced lawyer would know better.