Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

Henry Fonda's entertaining vehicle with young people and agreeable actors . A widower Navy Admiral (Henry Fonda) and a lovely widow (Lucille Ball who produced the film with his company : Desilu Productions) fall in love and marry, much to the dismay of his 10 and her 8 children . He runs a loving but tight ship , with charts and salutes . The kids long for a permanent home . The film deals about a happy family , the father is a notorious Admiral and the mother is a nurse . They are instantly attracted to each other and quickly decide to marry . There are various family crisis but it is all very heartwarming . They are quite cognizant of the fact that he already has ten children from his first marriage, and she has eight from her first marriage . Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball ought to keep the familiar order involving in their own home while at the same time occupy the works .Then the problems start as two sets of kids, the free spirits and the disciplined preppies, must live together. The warring factions agree to work together to carry out the marriage .

The picture is pretty entertaining and amusing , the film contains bemusing scenes , zany shenanigans , continuous laughters and various chuckles with lots of fun . Humanity and humor are high in the priorities of the director Shavelson who shows a considerable talent recapturing funny situations . The picture belongs to numerous family sub-genre whose maxim representation is ¨Cheaper by dozen ¨ with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb and a modern version starred by Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt ; and of course ¨Yours , mine and ours¨ , being recently remade (2005) by Raja Gosnell with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo . Formidable main cast , very well featured by Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball . Besides , there appears as sons ,some young actors who will have an acceptable career as TV stars as Morgan Brittany , Tim Matheson and Tracy Nelson .

The motion picture was well directed by Melville Shavelson . His movies have a special penchant for recapturing a particular atmosphere , many of this movies are about real people but they remain muted in impact . A notorious screenwriter , Bob Hope and Danny Kaye features Shavelson's movies when he became filmmaker and his films with them are the most successful such as ¨The seven tittle Foys¨ , Beau James¨, ¨On the Double¨ and ¨Five pennies¨ . Shavelson's later pictures were made for TV and mostly biographies as ¨The great Houdini¨ , ¨Ike¨, ¨Ike : the war years¨, and ¨The legend of Valentino¨ which remains the best work on the subject to date . Two of the best films resulted to be ¨¨Cast a giant shadow¨ , an epic movie with all-star-cast dealing with the birth of Israel and this ¨Yours , mine and ours¨.

Fmovies: I worked with Helen Beardsley at a hospital in Fresno, CA in the early 80's. She was a nice woman with a take-charge attitude. (I think you have to have one when you are the mother of 19 children.) She used to live in an ocean-view house in the Carmel area, but then sold it to move to Fresno. We always kidded her about doing that; she said the weather was better inland. I think that she was proud of her book and movie. She sold the rights to her movie early on, before it achieved sort of cult-favorite status. She told me that she regretted doing that. I did not know that she died until I read it on this comment page. I was sorry to read that; she wasn't that old and she was a strong woman.

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 and Ours fmovies. YOURS, MINE, AND OURS reunites Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, who had worked together in the 1942 B-film THE BIG STREET, the former a heavy-handed drama making a contrast to this lightweight comedy. Reminiscent of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, the premise -- a man and woman, both with a huge family, meet, fall in love, and marry -- would be unbelievable if it weren't true.

Based on the autobiographical novel by Helen Eileen Beardsley, YOURS, MINES, AND OURS is a blueprint of sorts of future television shows "The Brady Bunch" and "Eight is Enough" but amps it up to eleven. While on those shows we never got to see just how a real household was handled (being situation programs, their stories were resolved in minimal time), here we get glimpses of what happens at dinnertime, or how groceries get done, and it's those trivial things that keep the charming story in check instead of throwing it into la-la land. Both Fonda and Ball are well-matched and have funny scenes together despite that both actors were a little too old for their characters, but it's not even a minor contrivance. Very enjoyable, witty, sunny: just what this kind of movie should be.

This classic comedy features Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda reunited. Ball plays a widow with 8 children while Fonda plays a widower with 10 children. The two get married and try to unite the families as one. With 20 different personalities in one home, things get more than a little tough. There is one scene where one of Fonda's children spikes Lucille Ball's drink. She gets drunk and makes a fool of herself, much to the delight of the kids. I love that scene. Her runny makeup and slurring words are just hilarious! This movie has recently been the victim of a terrible remake starring Dennis Quade. If you found that entertaining in any way, you will love the original. It is a wonderful, funny movie that is safe for all ages. Enjoy!

If I were asked what my favorite film of all time was, I would probably say either "The Last Picture Show" or "Ordinary People," two films that I feel are legitimate masterpieces. But if I were asked what my favorite film of all time REALLY was, I'd have to say "Yours, Mine and Ours," which was one of the first movies my parents ever took me to (along with a re-release of "Swiss Family Robinson" and Steve McQueen's "Bullitt") as a five-year-old. I've loved it my entire life, and I have to admit my affection for it hasn't dimmed with age. Although I realize it's not one of the great masterpieces of all time, and I would never rate it as high as say, "Show" or "People" or "Casablanca" or "Schindler's List" for that matter, I still love this film all the same.

I must admit that I am also a lifelong fan of "I Love Lucy," so the fact that "Yours, Mine and Ours" stars Lucille Ball certainly has something to do with my fondness for this film. And growing up in the '70's when co-star Henry Fonda was relegated to cameo roles in awful films like "The Swarm" and "Rollercoaster," if it hadn't have been for his charismatic and likeable performance here, I would never have known he was the great actor that he was. Add the pleasure of Lucille's longtime friend Van Johnson in the prime supporting role of Darryl, Fonda's best friend, and an extremely young Tim Matheson as Fonda's oldest son, and you have the foundation of an excellent cast in a lovely romantic comedy about the ultimate blended family (think "The Brady Bunch" with brains, and much, much larger to boot).

Very loosely based on a true story, Ball is Helen North, a recent widow with eight unruly children who moves to San Francisco for a fresh start. While working at the infirmary at an (unnamed) Naval base, she meets Naval Officer Frank Beardsley (Fonda, of course), who is a recent widower himself (with 10 children !) and has brought one of his daughters (Suzanne Cupito, aka '70's starlet Morgan Brittany) in for treatment. Helen and Frank are immediately smitten with each other and go out on a date, but immediately break it off when they realize how many children their combined family would contain. Darryl realizes that eighteen children aside, these two were made for each other and proceeds to plot to get them together. They do eventually marry and this sets up many amusing scenes of this huge family trying to blend in together.

The nice thing about this film is that for once Lucille Ball is allowed to play a character completely different from Lucy Ricardo or Lucy Carmichael (from "The Lucy Show"). She is intelligent, touching, funny and very, very human here. In only one scene does she do any kind of "Lucy" shtick, and that is during a wonderfully played drunk scene. Even then she doesn't resemble her daffy TV persona as much as, well a woman who's had too much to drink. And the chemistry between Ball and Fonda is so believable, as a child I found it hard to believe they were not really married in real life! Honest! Johnson gives wonderful support and Tom Bosley has a few amusing scenes as the family's exasperated doctor. I also loved the character of Madeline Love, who Darryl sets Frank up with on a disastrous date that ends with her riding home between Frank and Helen (who's been dumped by her Darryl-arranged date).