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 went down in the Pacific Ocean and he wants to marry Bianca Steele. After some confusion, the judge 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. Navysubmarine, 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, she encounters her young daughters, who do not remember her, but she does not have the heart to tell them the truth. Her mother-in-law Grace Arden tells her of the new marriage and puts her on a plane to Monterey so that she can prevent its consummation.
Ellen arrives at the hotel and manages to alert Nick of her presence, who is overjoyed to reunite with her and wants to stay 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 cannot bring himself to tell Bianca the truth and Ellen leaves the hotel angrily. When Nick sees Ellen leave, he fakes an injury to prevent further advances by Bianca.
The next day, when Nick comes home, he meets Ellen who is masquerading as a Swedish masseuse employed by Nick's mother to help him with his back. As Ellen and Bianca tussle, the doorbell goes. An insurance man is there 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 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, with her mother-in-law's advice, she convinces an awkward-looking shoe clerk to pose as Burkett. Nick is not convinced and looks for Burkett himself. When he finds him at a hotel pool, he notices to his horror that Burkett is young, attractive, and athletic. Nick invites Ellen to the same pool bar to confront her with Burkett. But before she sees Burkett, she tells the truth about him but still swears that nothing happened between the two in the five years and asks for Nick's forgiveness. But when she notices Burkett, she angrily accuses Nick of trying to embarrass her and storms off.
Nick tells Bianca the truth about Ellen but is informed that Grace has reported him for bigamy earlier to force him to make a decision regarding Ellen and Bianca. This leads to another chaotic court date, where several matters are put to the decision of the same judge, who is even more confused: 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. The judge dismisses the bigamy charge, annuls Nick's and Bianca's marriage, declares Ellen alive again and postpones judgement on the divorce proceedings.
When Ellen returns to her home several hours later, devastated, Nick has already told his daughters that she is their mother and all happily reunite.
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.
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.[6]
Reception
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."[7]
However, more recent reviews have been more positive. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews praised James Garner’s performance[8] 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."[9]
Soundtrack
"Move Over Darling" – The film's title theme, with music and lyrics by Joe Lubin, Hal Kanter and Terry Melcher (Day's son), arranged by Jack Nitzsche, is sung by Day and chorus (featuring ace West Coast session singers the Blossoms, featuring Darlene Love, Fanita James and Jean King) during the opening credits and played as background music at the end. The song reached #8 on the British singles chart in 1964 for Day and charted in 1983 for Tracey Ullman.[10]
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¢.
^Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p253
