In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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!

Doris Day herself even reflects on the original version of this ("My Favorite Wife") where, with a Swedish accent, she asks the new wife of her husband (James Garner) what would happen if the first wife (herself!) came back from the dead, "just like Irene Dunne done....ah, did..." The zaniness of this very 60's remake is obvious from the get-go, taking a good deal of the structure of the original, yet giving it a modern feel thanks to the presence of some of the biggest stars of its time and casting many great actors in smaller parts.Take the opening courtroom sequence for instance with "Petticoat Junction's" Edgar Buchannan as the irascible judge who declares Ms. Day legally dead and then marries his "widower" to the neurotic Polly Bergen. As coincidence would have it, Doris has just returned from being shipwrecked on a desert island, shocking her mother-in-law (Thelma Ritter) who faints long enough to reveal her secret thrill that the new marriage isn't valid, sending Doris on her way to where the unlucky newlyweds are honeymooning. This creates a lot of confusion for the hotel staff once Garner is forced to get his back from the dead wife a room of her own so he can intelligently think of how he's going to get himself out of this jam.Garner is a perfect replacement for Cary Grant, equally as dashing, and very much the picture-perfect husband. While Day is more famous for her pairings with Rock Hudson, I think she had equally hot chemistry with Garner, although they only did one other film together ("The Thrill of It All", the same year as this), and only did a total of three with "the Rock". I would also rank this higher than many of her other sex comedies of the late 50's and 60's for being consistently funny and definitely much better written, not rushed together just to get another film out to take advantage of her status as top female box office star, even higher than Liz, Audrey, Sophia, Marilyn (originally assigned to do this film) and Debbie.Such comical gems as Fred Clark, Don Knotts, John Astin and Max Showalter have nice parts here, and Chuck Connors is (at least from the face down) nice to look at as the body builder Doris was stuck on an island with. There's plenty of slapstick to keep this moving at a steady pace, and a hysterical chase sequence that has Doris covered in car wash soap suds. Even if her character is a bit abrasive, Bergen adds a patheticness to her that you feel sorry for her even though it is obvious that she is fighting a losing battle. Ritter gets in a few of her typical deadpan laughs, and the children (played by Pami Lee and Leslie Farrell) are adorable. While remakes of classic screwball comedies are often a mixed bag, this one scores highly, even though the plot had been done over and over again. 1940's "Too Many Husbands" a sexually reversed version was not nearly as good as the remake, and only made more palatable with campy musical numbers as 1955's "Three For the Show".

Move Over, Darling (1963)The situation is hilarious--a man finally gives up his wife as dead in a plane crash in the South Pacific and remarries. Then she comes home, just hours after the ceremony. And in time to avoid the classic consummation at the ritzy hotel. Doris Day plays the lost wife returning home and her hubby is the charming James Garner. And Garner's mother--Day's mother in law--is played by the impeccable Thelma Ritter.So what could go wrong here? Nothing much really. It's colorful, plasticky, fun, goofy, and well written. Except that it's a remake of a more famous and in many ways better movie starring the snappy on-screen couple: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The original is called "My Favorite Wife," and I totally recommend it. It must have occurred to these newer actors that they had huge huge shoes to fill. And to make things more weird, Doris Day is basically filling in for Marilyn Monroe, who died during the filming of this same kind of plot (though this movie started the idea almost from scratch, only Ritter and some of the sets being carried over).One way to avoid comparisons is to never see the original. We all know the dangers there--who wants to only see the second or third "King Kong" or the second "The Women" and so on? But there is also the truth that Doris Day is her own commodity. She is convincingly regular, a true 50s/60s mom type for middle class America (though be sure, these are all extremely rich people here, part of the glamorizing that the audience craves). So go back to the start here--this is a well made, fast paced, silly movie in the Doris Day vein. She's the true star, though Garner does his best to be a somewhat more conventional Grant. There are a couple of scenes that will crack you up beyond the endless smaller jokes and gags. One is where Day pretends to be a Swedish masseuse and ends up "massaging" that is torturing the new wife. The other is a wonderful automatic car wash scene in a classic car with suds flying--and the top to the car goes down by mistake. Day is an amazing sport for all of this.

Comedy Writer/Director Leo McCarey originally filmed this as My Favorite Wife with Carey Grant starring. The original is better. This one while it has a talented cast has several things that handicapped it's success.There was a shadow over the production as it originally started filming with Marilyn Monroe in 1962 as Somethings Got To Give. Marilyn died before it could be completed so it was re-shot with Doris Day replacing Marilyn.This redo relies too much on tung-in-cheek comedy trading on the Doris Day clean & pure image while not enough on the comedy. The film does not take enough advantage of James Garner who is in peak form but not given enough to do in this version of the film. Even in the 1960's this formula story is wearing out as social changes had already happened making the plot seem trivial. Hetrosexuals in the 1960's were trying to cast off the bonds of marriage so they could swing and be more free. This movie still acts like the values which are being replaced are still in place. That is even a bigger problem with My Favorite Wife now, but this one, while planted firmly tung-in-cheek for comedy, doesn't hit the bullseye often enough.If your a Day or Garner fan this is good. If your interested, the incomplete Monroe version of this from 1962 is available too as well as the Grant version from 1940.