Bella Move On Darling (1963) is a Comedy/Romance starring Doris Day as Ellen Wagstaff Arden and James Garner as Nicolas Arden. Nicholas Arden heads to the courthouse with his fiancé to be married, but before he does so he must get the judge to sign a petition pronouncing his old wife, Ellen Wagstaff Arden as dead. She was lost at sea but was eventually rescued and made her way home just in time for the honeymoon. She follows them to the hotel to ensure that they never consummate it.This flick has it all- great acting, a darling cast, hilarious scenes throughout that will have you rolling on the floor laughing and a superb plot. Doris Day is stunning and classy. I would recommend this film to all lovers of romantic comedies.

Dalbert Pringle Yep. That's right, all you vintage Rom/Com movie fans - I seriously think that this utterly unbearable film (from 1963) really needs to be re-titled "You Make Me Sick, Darling!" (asap) Yep. It sure does.OK. It was irritating enough that this badly-conceived "one-note-joke-of-a-movie" had its idiotic situation milked completely bone-dry - But - On top of that - The totally irksome, scenery-chewing antics of both its female leads (Doris Day and Polly Bergen) was so downright revolting, all round, that it made my skin just crawl like you wouldn't believe.Apparently - "Move Over's" story of bigamy was geared to an "adult" audience - And, yet - With the infantile way in which this subject matter was handled - It was one super-dumb bit of story-telling that made the likes of Sesame Street appear risqué by comparison.... Hey! I ain't kidding around here, folks!

SimonJack The plot for this film has been used a couple of times in literature, and a few times with variations in movies. A man is lost at sea and presumed dead, so in time his wife marries another man, only to have the first husband return. "Enoch Arden" was an 1864 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson that was made into movies in 1911, 1914 and 1915. The first and last were short films. Then, W. Somerset Maugham wrote a play with a similar plot in 1919. It was called "Home and Beauty," but the name was changed to "Too Many Husbands" for a 1940 Columbia Pictures film that starred Fred MacMurray, Jean Arthur and Melvyn Douglas. It was revised and made into a 1955 musical, "Three for the Show," starring Betty Grable, Jack Lemmon and Gower Champion.While "Husbands" was being made at Columbia (released in March of 1940), a team of writers for RKO Pictures had borrowed the original idea and flipped it over. This time it was a woman who was lost at sea and presumed dead, and the husband was just getting married again when his first wife reappears. The film, "My Favorite Wife," came out in May 1940, starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott. While both films did well, the later was a bigger hit than "Too Many Husbands." After the 1940 hit, "My Favorite Wife," 20th Century Fox wanted to remake the movie around 1960. It was to have a substantial makeover under the title, "Something's Gotta Give," and was to star Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin. It didn't happen. In a nutshell, Monroe was fired for failing to show up at most shootings. Then Dean Martin quit if Monroe wasn't going to be in it. Finally, Monroe was back in, but she died a few days later of a barbiturate overdoseThere's a lot more to the story, and one wonders what to believe. My DVD of "Move Over, Darling," has a bonus special documentary short that delves into the movie that wasn't made and some of the sordid details. But, after seeing the original 1940 story, and then this 1963 film with Doris Day and James Garner, I can't picture a Monroe-Martin combination in the same type of story. I think it would have gone over like a lead balloon. So, with a lot of investment in the film otherwise, Fox picked it up again, dusted it off and rewrote the script, and put out "Move Over Darling" in 1963. The film is a more modern version of the original, with some changes. In the original, Ellen Arden is lost at sea for seven years after the ship she was on sank. Her children were a boy and a girl. In this remake, she was lost five year after her plane crashed in the ocean. Both of her kids are girls. Both supporting casts are excellent. And, while Day and Garner are very good as Ellen and Nick Arden in this film. they are just a notch below the performances of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the original. The original script also is a bit more crispy and witty. One very good addition in this film is Day's character impersonating a "Svedish" nurse-masseuse. Doris Day never won an Oscar in her talented career of singing, dancing and acting. But she won Golden Globe Henrietta awards as the world's favorite female actress four separate years. The whole family should enjoy this film. It's just one of those situations when an original has such a character of its own – with its specific cast – that any new rendition with another cast can't quite match the humor of the first. My DVD had a bonus special that I found very interesting. It was about the origin of the story. "Enoch Arden II" was the first film of the story based on a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It was made as a short in 1911 by D.W. Griffith. It followed the original tragedy of the poem.

U.N. Owen Yes, this is the remake of My Favorite Wife - an excellent comedy.It is also a remake of what was to have been Marilyn Monroe's (last) picture; Something's Got To Give.While I doubt SGTG would've gone down as one of Marilyn's best, it definitely held out promise - for both the RomCom genre, and, for Marilyn's career.A big mistake (initally passed down by 20th Century Fox) was how/why Marilyn was terminated, etc.A little known fact was Marilyn WAS rehired to finish the film - and was looking forward to it.Saying that as a preamble, the reason I get a little misty seeing MOD, is I'm very familiar with the stuff MArilyn & co. shot - on the same (some, slightly redressed) sets that Doris & co. use.Scenes that Marilyn played (VERY well!) with a natural femininity (and motherliness) that, while definitely sexy, were NOT 'act sexy' if you get my meaning.One scene in particular, is when Marilyn mets her children (in SGTG, a boy & girl, and in MID 2 girls).Marilyn actually almost brings tears to my eyes when she played the scene, because her interaction with the children was so sincere, so maternal, it was really something to see.In MOD, it's played in a typical 'Doris' style (and, I'm NOT taking ANYTHING away from Ms. Day. I LOVE her!): a bit of silliness, and, the 'sexy' part toned down.If you're familiar with SGTG, then you can play theses comparisons in several scenes - the other being Marilyn/Doris as the masseuse, and Mariyn/Doris at the shoe store (Wit one of my all-time favorite double entendres - Marilyn asking Wally Cox to have lunch with him, and he says he eats lunch in, to which Marilyn says she'd be 'so grateful if he'd take it out.' In each of them, you can see the two women in a rare moment of comparison.I think Doris was put in MOD, and proved herself a real trooper, as this project had such 'stigma' attached to it, and I think she does the best she can.While I can see (and agree) with the comparisons others have given MOD to MFW, I try to look at this not through those eyes, but, through the eyes of what might've been, and what was.A good 1hour 21min of Doris fun.