Move Over, Darling

"She's Married to Him... He's Married to Her... and It's Sheer Bedlam from Morning 'till Night!"

1963 1h 43m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 104

ComedyRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“She's Married to Him... He's Married to Her... and It's Sheer Bedlam from Morning 'till Night!”

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Cast

Doris Day
Ellen Wagstaff Arden
James Garner
Nicholas Arden
Polly Bergen
Bianca Steele
Thelma Ritter
Grace Arden
Fred Clark
Mr. Codd
Don Knotts
Shoe Clerk
Elliott Reid
Dr. Herman Schlick
Edgar Buchanan
Judge Bryson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Gordon
Writers: Hal Kanter, Jack Sher, Bella Spewack
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

63 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Gordon, shot by Daniel L. Fapp. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lionel Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Doris Day and James Garner and Polly Bergen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "She's Married to Him... He's Married to Her... and It's Sheer Bedlam from Morning 'till Night!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0057329 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Gordon directs. Daniel L. Fapp behind the camera. Lionel Newman scores. Robert L. Simpson cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

163 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
3Directed by Michael Gordon, shot by Daniel L. Fapp. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Lionel Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Doris Day and James Garner and Polly Bergen carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "She's Married to Him... He's Married to Her... and It's Sheer Bedlam from Morning 'till Night!".
8IMDB entry: tt0057329 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 14 themes, including "island", "judge", "return", "honeymoon".

The technical file

Cinematography: Daniel L. Fapp
Original score: Lionel Newman
Editing: Robert L. Simpson
Costume design: Moss Mabry
Makeup / hair: George Masters
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $12,705,882
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Move Over, Darling (1963)

Also by

Michael Gordon

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-01-12
★ 6/10
"Ellen" (Doris Day) has been missing for years and even pronounced legally dead when she is returned to civilisation by the US Navy and turns up at her mother-in-law's house. "Grace" (Thelma Ritter) gets quite a surprise, bit luckily she has a thick rug o which to cushion her fall a few times before telling her that her son "Nick" (James Garner) was not going to live his life in solitude for ever and had just married "Bianca" (Polly Bergen). What's more, he has taken her for their honeymoon to the same hotel they went to first time round. "Ellen" is determined to get her man back and so sets off to track them down. Needless to say he gets quite a shock when she shows up, and being legally married to wife number two creates quite a quandary for everyone, especially hotel manager "Codd" (Fred Clark) who probably has the best part here and isn't used to his elite establishment having wife-juggling competitions in it's suites. Calamities galore now ensue as he has to walk quite a tightrope. Does he love "Ellen"? Does she love him? Does he love "Bianca"? She him? Is "Ellen" even alive? Is he allowed to love her? Is he a bigamist? It's quite a fun romp at the start, but once we've laid the foundations it gets a bit repetitive and the humour made me cringe more than laugh after a while. There's some chemistry between Garner and Bergen but somehow Day and he didn't click the way she did with Rock Hudson in, say, "Pillow Talk" (1959). It's still all watchable enough and the denouement with Edgar Buchanan's flabbergasted "Judge Bryson" is quite entertaining.

Production companies