Move Over, Darling

CinemaSerf 1/12/2025 1:24:17PM 8.4

"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.