Classic Pick: Move Over, Darling (1963)
Following James Garner’s passing last week, I felt it appropriate to try and recommend one of his films for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, Watch Instantly is sparse on some of his best performances, but it does have one of the lighter, merrier comedies he appeared in alongside Doris Day. This one is a remake of My Favorite Wife, a screwball comedy that starred Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
Move Over, Darling has Garner in the role of Nick Arden, a widower whose wife Ellen (Doris Day) vanished in a plane crash. He has two small children now growing up without memory of their mother, and so five years after Ellen vanishes he decides that it’s time to move on and marries Bianca (Polly Bergen). He’s barely started off on his honeymoon, however, when Ellen turns up, very much alive: she’s been stranded on an island for the past five years. What ensues is a bedroom comedy, as Nick has to grapple with the fact that he now has two wives (one of them legally dead). When Ellen’s island companion turns up, things get even more complicated, as jealousy rears its ugly head.
If Move Over, Darling sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. A screwball comedy develops out of a rather soap opera-esque plot, as Ellen and Nick come to terms with the rather bizarre situation they find themselves in, their love for each other undiminished in the intervening years but now rather strained. It’s a light and frothy comedy with charming performances as enjoyable and ephemeral as a piece of candy. Garner is the highlight, though, his affable nature and gentle good looks elevating his character much as Grant had done. There’s perhaps no better way to celebrate this actor’s delightful career than enjoying him at his most charismatic.
