Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

A widower with ten children falls for a widow with eight, and they must decide about forming a huge, unconventional family.

Director:

Melville Shavelson

Writers:

Bob Carroll Jr. (story), Madelyn Davis (story)

Stars:

Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lucille Ball	...	Helen North Beardsley
Henry Fonda	...	Frank Beardsley
Van Johnson	...	Warrant Officer Darrel Harrison
Louise Troy	...	Madeleine Love
Sidney Miller	...	Dr. Ashford
Tom Bosley	...	Family Doctor
Nancy Howard	...	Nancy Beardsley
Walter Brooke	...	Howard Beardsley
Tim Matheson	...	Mike Beardsley (as Tim Matthieson)
Gil Rogers	...	Rusty Beardsley
Nancy Roth	...	Rosemary Beardsley
Gary Goetzman	...	Greg Beardsley
Morgan Brittany	...	Louise Beardsley (as Suzanne Cupito)
Holly O'Brien	...	Susan Beardsley
Michele Tobin	...	Veronica Beardsley

Storyline

When a widower with 10 children marries a widow with 8, can the 20 of them ever come together as one big happy family? From finding a house big enough for all of them and learning to make 18 school lunches, to coping with a son going off to war and an unexpected addition to the family, Yours, Mine and Ours attempts to blend two families into one and hopes to answer the question Is bigger really better?

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Plot Keywords:

based on true story | fatherhood | carton | motherhood | redhead | 

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Taglines:

The Bride Had 8 Boys and Girls. The Groom Had 10 Boys and Girls. Their wedding night set new attendance records

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Cantonese Japanese

Release Date:

24 April 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Deine, meine, unsere

Filming Locations:

USS Enterprise CVN-65, Newport News, Virginia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Walden Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the television show, The Brady Bunch (1969) was in the beginning phases of production, the makers of "Yours, Mine and Ours" threatened to sue claiming that the concept was too similar to their own. The threat was withdrawn, however, when Brady Bunch producer Sherwood Schwartz countered the action with documentation that his original script was shown to have a copyright date before that of the movie. The final evidence that halted any legal proceedings was the fact that the original Brady Bunch title, according to the original draft of Schwartz's script, was "Yours and Mine."

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Goofs

When Colleen and her boyfriend are eating lunch, at school (he's talking about the "freak-out") Colleen takes her sandwich out of the paper bag and unwraps it three or four times.

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Quotes

Colleen North: Larry says he'll never speak to me again unless I grow up. He says that I'm being ridiculous and I don't love him, but I do love him. Am I being ridiculous?
Frank Beardsley: You're not being ridiculous.
Colleen North: Well, do all the other girls, like Larry says? And am I just being old-fashioned?
Frank Beardsley: The same idiots were passing the same rumors when I was your age, but if all the girls did, how come I always ended up with the ones who didn't?
Colleen North: But it's all different now!
Frank Beardsley: I don't know, they wrote Fanny Hill in 1742 and they ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Henry Fonda (1978)

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Soundtracks

It's a Sometimes World
(uncredited)
Music by Fred Karlin
Lyrics by Ernie Sheldon

User Reviews

Best Family Movie of the 60's

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.