Move Over, Darling - Production Notes

Production Notes

The film's script was written by Hal Kanter and Jack Sher, reworking an earlier script written by Arnold Schulman, Nunnally Johnson and Walter Bernstein, which was an update of the 1940 My Favorite Wife by Leo McCarey and Bella & Sam Spewack (The 1940 film is referenced by Ellen while she is giving Bianca a massage). The story is a comedic update of the 1864 poem "Enoch Arden" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was the seventh film version based on the Lord Tennyson poem.

The film was originally to be a comeback vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, under the working title of Something's Got to Give. Dean Martin was cast as Nick Arden after the initial choice James Garner was committed to doing The Great Escape and the director was George Cukor. Marilyn Monroe was fired for seldom showing up for shooting early in its production cycle, appearing in only about 30 minutes of usable film. At first, they tried to continue with Lee Remick in Monroe's place, but Martin balked at working with anyone else. Monroe was re-hired but died before she could resume filming, and that version was never completed. Unable to complete the movie, 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).

James Garner accidentally broke Day's rib during the massage scene when he pulls her off of Bergen. He wasn't aware of what had happened until the next day, when he felt the bandage while putting his arms around Day.

The film utilizes some of the interiors and stage-built "exteriors" from the original Cukor production for the Arden home, which were based on Cukor's actual Beverly Hills home at 9166 Cordell Drive. However, the on-location exteriors for the Arden home for the Gordon production 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 The original neoclassical house seen in the film has since been replaced by an enormous Italianate structure.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 Doris Day riding through a car wash for the last day of shooting because they were concerned 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.

The movie grossed $12,705,882 in the United States, becoming one of the biggest hits of the year and helping to keep 20th Century Fox afloat after Cleopatra.