Yours, Mine and Ours

Lucille Ball has always been a favorite actress/comedienne of mine, and so this vehicle, Yours, Mine and Ours, was a good showcase for her talents. One year later, Florence Henderson was to "reprise" the same role in the Brady Bunch TV series. This movie has it over the Bradys hands down. When all of the kids that belonged to Henry Fonda's character met Lucille Balls' character for the first time, they got her drunk. Would never happen on the Brady Bunch. And all those kids! I think it was either 19 or 20! Much more responsibility in this combined household. Don't forget shopping day, with the caravan of shopping carts, I'm surprised collateral didn't have to be put up for the groceries. The idea here is that the sheer enormity of this situation makes it so hilarious, along with all the petty jealousies and conflicts inherent in all families, creates a movie that viewers can relate to on several levels. You don't need to have 20 kids to appreciate the film. The Brady Bunch seemed too perfect. The Norths and the Beardsleys had to put some tough love and effort into this to make it work, and this is reflected in Yours, Mine, and Ours. See it just for the fun of it. Look for Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham of Happy Days) as the family doctor. Great fun!

I have always just loved this movie! I saw it as a teenager in the 60's, getting ready to go off to college and thought it was great fun at that time. Since I was a teenager, I remember really enjoying the character of Mike, played by Tim Matheson. I always thought he would go on to be a real big movie star instead of TV movies, since he had lots of charisma and maturity at that young age. However, he has done very well in the roles on television he has played and is always a real treat to watch. I don't think I thought Lucille Ball was too old the first time I saw it, because anyone over 25 seemed old to me at the time! I recently caught this movie on TV and enjoyed it again from an adult perspective. It was a little corny but still a good film. Life in the sixties even with Vietnam and all was a much more innocent time especially with what kids face today. I would give it a 100 just because it is so uplifting.

Lucille Ball reined above Hollywood as Queen of Comedy and also the CEO of Desilu with not one but three studio lots in Hollywood,Desilu Gower, Desilu Cahuenga and DesiluCulver ( The old Selznick Studio where Gone With The Wind was filmed). Taking chances was Lucy's forte: starring in a TV show "I Love Lucy" and insisting on the casting of her husband Desi Arnaz and her also equally famous decisions authorize the productions of "Star Trek" and "Mission Impossible" against the recommendations of the Desilu Board of Directors. Ball's last great accomplishment as a CEO was the insistence of filming "Yours Mine and Ours" as a theatrical movie hoping to make Desilu a force in film production as well. Make no doubt about it if one re reads the story that Rex Reed wrote in the New York Times on Lucy while she was filming this movie, Ms. Ball ran the show and event titled his great article on Lucy " I Run My Studio Like I Run My Home".

Lucille Ball-looking youthful and beautiful- is superb in the title role of Helen Beardsley and her nuanced performance should have garnered Lucille Ball a long sought after Oscar nomination. Ms. Ball is at times both funny and in a departure from her TV "Lucy" quite soft and underplays many scenes. Henry Fonda is a perfect "Mr. Beardsley". Van Johnson a pal from Lucy's old MGM days is cast and gets a nice role supporting both Stars.

Many were surprised by the success of this film. I have no idea why. It is a fine and lasting comedy classic directed by the sure hand of the fine Melville Shavelson.

YOURS, MINE, & OURS is the 1968 family classic based on a true story that, among other things, was an inspiration for the TV series THE BRADY BUNCH. This warm and entertaining comedy stars Lucille Ball as Helen North, a widowed naval nurse, who is the mother of eight children who meets and falls in love with Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a widowed naval officer, who is the father of ten children and the obvious complications that ensue when Helen and Frank decide to marry and blend their families. There are no surprises here...the children obviously object to the union and still think of themselves as separate families despite Frank and Helen's efforts to bring them together, but everything does eventually iron itself out in true sitcom style. Lucille Ball has one of her best film roles here, playing it relatively straight as Helen, but the Lucy we know and love does get to shine through in a couple of comic scenes...one at a crowded bar where she does battle with a slip and a fake eyelash and during a dinner at Frank's house where Frank's sons have spiked her drink and she gets very drunk. Fonda proves to have a surprising gift for light comedy and his chemistry with Ball is unexpectedly solid. Van Johnson is very funny as the mutual friend who brings them together and Tom Bosley has some funny moments as the family doctor. There are several future stars featured in the film as the North/Beardsley children, including Tim Matheson, Gil Rogers, Morgan Brittany, Mitch Vogel, and Tracy Nelson. A true family classic that still makes me laugh out loud after almost 40 years.

I have to admit that I had trouble with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in the leads largely because they both were really too old to play their respective characters (Ball was about 57 at the time and Fonda about 63). In the end the film is so well done that I forgot about that. Aside from the film "Please Don't Eat the Daisies", this is probably the best family movie of the 60's. The best thing about the film is the realistic way in which the family blends together. The usual problems are all there and the way in which Fonda and Ball deal with it is about what one would expect, a certain amount of good intentions, a bit of mistake making, sacrifice, and providing a good deal of love and support. The writing may not be politically correct in this day and age (the scene where Fonda's kids get Ball drunk, Ball spanks one of the boys, and there is also a certain amount of gender stereotyping), but it is this that gives the film its appeal and relatability. As Leonard Maltin points out, look for a some well known faces in the supporting cast. Tom Bosley as the doctor, Tim Matheson as Mike, a four or five year old Tracey Nelson, Morgan Brittany of Dallas fame, 70's TV staple Ben Murphy as the oldest daughter's boyfriend, and well known child actor Eric Shea who gives an endearing performance as young Philip, the kid that seems the most lost in the big family. All in all Dad Fonda sums the whole thing up when he describes for the oldest daughter (who's being pressured by the boyfriend to have sex) what love is really about and how this family is staying together, "It isn't going to bed with a man that proves that you love him it's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world that counts. I suppose having 19 kids is carrying it a bit too far, but if we had it to do all over again who would we skip, you?" And that is exactly what Helen and Frank are doing together, and the kids admire and respect them all the more for it.