What would happen if a man were to lose his wife in a tragic accident and end up remarrying after years of grieving, only to have the first wife to return on his wedding night? This predicament features in two classic movies, “My Favorite Wife” (1940) and “Move Over, Darling” (1963).
Coming Back
Ellen Arden (Dunne/Day) returns to her Los Angeles home after being rescued from a desert island by sailors. In “My Favorite Wife,” it’s been seven years since she was presumed drowned, and five years in the remake. Little does Ellen know that her lawyer husband, Nick (Grant/Garner), has just had her pronounced legally dead so that he can remarry
Ellen goes to their house right away and sees her children playing in the pool. In the original, the children are a boy (Scotty Beckett) and a girl (Mary Lou Harrington); the remake features two girls (Pami Lee and Leslie Farrell).
Changes Made
From this point onward, the films go in different directions. In the original film, Nick convinces Bianca that they should drive back to his house. In the remake, he fakes a back injury. At her husband’s home, Ellen assumes a false identity. In the original, she pretends to be a loudmouthed Southern friend of the family, who is a little too friendly with Nick. In the remake, she impersonates a Swedish masseuse hired by Nick’s mother to nurse him back to health. Naturally, the bride quickly grows jealous of the other woman.
Irene Dunne Done
“Move Over, Darling” is one of the few remakes which acknowledges the existence of its original. This is especially funny because the main characters have the same names in both versions, and much of the dialogue was reused verbatim. In a hilarious scene, Ellen, masquerading as a Swedish masseuse, describes the plot of “My Favorite Wife” while giving Bianca a vigorous massage. She points out the similarity between that movie and Bianca’s new marriage, wondering what would happen if Mr. Arden’s first wife came back “like Irene Dunne done.” When Bianca casually says that Ellen would have to step aside because she is the current Mrs. Arden, the massage gets much more vigorous.
It’s interesting to see how the characters differ in the hands of each actor. The remake is almost 20 minutes longer, so more time is taken to develop the scenarios. While the original is a bona fide screwball comedy, the remake is more romantic and sentimental. Instead of the zany gags which characterized 1940s comedies, the remake derives most of its laughs from bedroom comedy a la 1963.
By this point, the Production Code Administration (PCA) was only five years away from its replacement with the rating system, and you can see Hollywood’s decaying moral state in many scenes. Although the film’s overall moral tone is wholesome, there are some very suggestive scenarios surrounding the wedding night. Bianca’s longing for her new bridegroom is much more pointed than it would have been in a movie made during the PCA’s Golden Age (1934–1954).
Although some of the bedroom shenanigans with Bianca in the remake are a little embarrassing to watch in mixed company, it is charming. How can you not help but love Doris Day? The romantic story arc was simplified significantly, since Burkett’s role is downplayed. After seeing the original, it’s a little disconcerting when the original husband says he has to think about whether he still wants to be with the wife he thought was dead for seven years, simply because she was stranded on an island with an attractive man.
