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:

Yours, Mine and Ours

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

Tim Matheson and Jennifer Leak (who played the eldest children) married the year the film was released.

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Goofs

In the dispensary, when the scene freezes so that Van Johnson can talk to the camera, a bus can be seen passing by the window (at 37:14 on the DVD).

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Quotes

Helen North: That was a wonderful dinner, I enjoyed all *eight* courses.
Frank Beardsley: So did I.
Helen North: And speaking of children...
Frank Beardsley: We weren't speaking of children.
Helen North: We weren't? Oh thank goodness.

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Connections

Remade as Makkala Sainya (1980)

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Soundtracks

Yours, Mine and Ours
(uncredited)
Music by Fred Karlin
Lyrics by Ernie Sheldon
[sung by chorus over main titles]

User Reviews

I loved this movie except for a few points

I'm big on believability, so I'd have to agree that both Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda were a bit long in the tooth to be portraying parents whose oldest children were about sixteen and about fourteen at the time of their marriage. I read the original book by Helen Beardsley, "Who Gets the Drumstick," on which this film was based, long before seeing the film, so I remember from the book that at the time she was widowed, Helen North was 32 years old. No way would Lucy in her nurse's mufti pass for 33 in that infirmary scene with Henry Fonda. I can't remember how old Frank Beardsley was -- at least 8 or 10 years older than Helen, though. Still, Henry Fonda didn't pass for fortysomething when he opened the film with "Oh-nine-hundred" and looked at his watch on the way home to his kids.

Second, the situation with Louise (which was not based on anything that happened in the book -- Frank Beardsley actually met Helen North through his sister, a nun in the school where Helen's kids enrolled after their father's death and their move from Washington State to the San Francisco area) struck me as completely incredulous. She was one of ten children, including seven sisters, and she's mad about having to share her room? Surely by the time she hit fourteen, she would've tried to make the best of the situation and learned that complaining did no good.

Third, in the scene where Frank is away on the shakedown cruise and Helen opens one of his letters, the first thing you notice is La Lucille's flawlessly polished long nails and beautifully manicured hands. A mother of eighteen who spends her days scrubbing, cooking, and doing laundry does not have hands like this. My own mother only had five kids, and trust me, it doesn't work that way. LOL

I have no idea what the real Beardsley family thought about the movie that portrayed their story. The original story as related in the book was really heartwarming, and I think the screenwriters should've been more faithful to the book. Helen Beardsley died on April 26, 2000 of complications from Parkinson's Disease. She was 70. I understand that Frank is still living.