With Six You Get Eggroll

I saw this as a boy & I loved it! I still do because it's a retro look at life in the iconic 60's. It's full of physical comedy, camp, & the up's & down's of blending a ready made family! Doris Day & Brian Keith are an amazing team together. Keith was a good romantic choice, and a good looking man! I love Doris, what a fantastic multi-dimensional actress, just can't say enough about her! Pat Carroll as her sister & in her debut film, shows off her zany comedic timing as a gifted comedian. This is one of my most favorite movies! Not being a great reviewer, but a good critic I recommend seeing this light, bright comedy, and I think you'll feel better after watching! I gave it a 10 because I love it!

Doris Day moved into middle-age with grace and self-effacing charm; "With Six You Get Eggroll", her final film, was worked over by four screenwriters and may not be a comedy classic, but Doris plays it with conviction anyhow. As a widow with three boys who begins dating a widower--a single father and acquaintance of her late husband's--Day is quick to laugh, fast with the quips, canny and clever and bright. Spying Brian Keith's sexy neighbor "out for a walk" in the early evening, Doris's dry remark, "It's a nice night for streetwalking", is delivered nonchalantly but with icy accuracy. She works hard to befriend Keith's mercurial teenage daughter (Barbara Hershey, in her film debut) but, when that blows up in her face, she and Keith have an argument that is too loud and mean for a cute suburban comedy (the point here--that Day was finally able to make a connection with the girl--is lost and never recovered). The kids are all realistically abrasive and selfish--in need of Life Lessons--and there are fine supporting turns by Pat Carroll, Herb Voland and Alice Ghostley (and George Carlin in a bit); however, the paste-up/give-up happy ending must have looked like a groaner even in (or, especially in) 1968. "Eggroll" has some funny things to say about step familial relationships and rules, teenage possessiveness, and dating after 40. Unlike the not-dissimilar "Yours, Mine and Ours", this one gets its message across utilizing only four children, which is a bargain indeed. *** from ****

Doris Day's upbeat, cheery, and sunshiny career (with exceptions like "The Man who Knew Too Much," "Love Me or Leave Me," and "Julie") ended with "With Six You Get Eggroll," a film which shows how a father with one daughter gets along with a mother and her two sons, when the parents marry. The courting and romance of father Brian Keith and Doris is rather sweet, but the complications arise after their marriage, as to who moves into whose house and who sleeps where, which causes Brian and Doris to have a fight, and of course it leads inevitably to an outlandish and zany ending. This is one of Ms. Day's not-so-subtle movies, as the laughs come courtesy mainly from the youngest boy and his disposition and his crazy antics dealing with the change forced on him. This seems to have a juvenile sense of humor, but I've never laughed so hard in my life. I give this a '6', only because, while funny, it seems to come with a price of feeling rather uncouth, and maybe an embarrassment to the career of all concerned, including a young Barbara Hershey as Brian Keith's daughter. This came out a year before "The Brady Bunch," so one wonders if this movie inspired it. Directed by "The Andy Griffith Show" 's star Howard Morris, who played Ernest T. Bass, this is one family film that will either be a hit with families laughing at obvious jokes or fall flat with those who demand more from a Doris Day outing.

When I saw "With Six You Get Eggroll" in a plush New York theatre, I had no idea that it would be Doris Day's last film appearance. This one was an old idea with a modern look: a widow with three boys marries a widower with a teenaged daughter (Barbara Hershey)and all hell breaks loose.

Even though I am not partial to films with children in them or "family pictures", I enjoyed Miss Day's performance in this film as well as her supporting players. As was always the case, she was surrounded by the best supporting people available. Pat Carroll, as her sister was a lot of fun as was Alice Ghostley, her harried maid. There were many familiar faces darting in and out. People like Jaime Farr, Vic Taback, Jackie Joseph and George Carlin.

Brian Keith was a "comfortable", but gruff leading man for Doris. They had many nice scenes together, although he did not measure up to the usual caliber star with whom Miss Day was usually paired.

As usual, Doris Day worked well with children. She was one of the few major stars that could. Many female stars avoided kids like the plague, but not Doris. She could handle the situation.

Even though this is a comedy, there were a couple of very dramatic scenes in which Doris shows what a marvelously serious actress she can be. This came when she and Keith had a blowout about his daughter cleaning the house without any help from Doris' older son. Day was so into the scene, you could see her actually shaking with anger.

The film became a tearjerker at the end when everybody "saw the light" and came together after a big car chase, an accident and a fist fight. The picture is more enjoyable than the Henry Fonda/Lucille Ball film with approximately the same theme. Their's was called "Yours, Mine and Ours", also in 1968.

I absolutely love this movie. People have commented that Doris Day's later movies were not as good as the ones from the early '60s, but I disagree. The storyline here is very engaging, and the characters are superb. I totally lose myself in this movie when I watch it, and I laugh out loud every time. It is fun to follow the timeline of the movie... if you analyze it the entire thing takes place over about 5 months. It begins in June (with Flip and Stacey's graduation), and ends around Halloween (hence the brief appearnces of the Halloween masks). The supporting cast is terrific too, some great old faces that everyone will recognize. If you love the classic comedies of Doris Day, I heartily recommend this one.