My Six Loves

Debbie Reynolds gets a pair of co-stars and a batch of kids to share the screen with in My Six Loves. She plays a prominent stage actress who out of fatigue and doctor's orders retreats to her house in Connecticut before embarking on any new projects.

Her co-stars are theatrical producer David Janssen who's produced a couple of her shows and the Reverend Cliff Robertson who ministers a church in her Connecticut neighborhood. But her real problem is a family of six kids who have squatted on her land, left there by their parents.

Of course she and girl Friday Eileen Heckart take the kids in and before long the idea of a family kind of grows on her and it conflicts with her career. Robertson helps out quite willingly and even Janssen as gruff as his character is also pitches in.

There are a couple of beautiful performances by Max Showalter and Mary McCarty who come back to claim the kids. As it turns out they were dumped on them by her sister and they keep them around for those six welfare checks that come in. Showalter and McCarty are a true pair of white trash bottom feeders who get quite a lesson in justice by Judge John McGiver.

This was a perfect film for Debbie Reynolds. I think only Doris Day could have handled it maybe as well had she been cast. It holds up well today and I highly recommend it for family audiences.