Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

So much average

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

why is it people care so much how old Lucille ball and henry Fonda were in the movie. when i saw it i thought that they both looked awfully believable in their roles and thats that. fun movie with miss ball doing scenes that remind us of the classic i love Lucy.....and Mr. Fonda looking debonair and actually good in comedy. the kid who stole the show Eric Shea...wow is he natural and good and this also went on in the Poseidon adventure. wonder what became of him. the scenes are all cute and the dialogue really is the dialogue parents and kids would have. not a absolutely great film...but a honest fun one that i enjoyed very much.

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¨.

OK, the movie is really quite dated. Perhaps this is why the movie sells for less than $9.99 on DVD. But in spite of its being dated, the movie is still very funny. Maybe it's funny because it is outdated. The movie was made a long, long time ago, in a day when "comedy" took priority over "politically correct". With Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr writing the script, it couldn't be anything but a sure fire winner. The two also provided their talents on I LOVE LUCY. (Madelyn Davis was known as Madelyn PUGH during the I LOVE LUCY era).Lucille Ball, in this movie, has really taken a big risk in stepping out of her domain where she truly reigned as the queen of comedy. Her brilliance as a comedian has always been in her ability to act like the perfect scatterbrain, driving a totally frustrated straight man well past his breaking point with her totally insane schemes. On TV, this straight man was played by Desi Arnaz and later, by Gale Gordon.In this movie, Lucille Ball shone brighter than ever, showing an ability to go from "scatterbrain" to "serious to the point of tears" and back, so effortlessly. And there was no "straight man" to bounce her brand of comedy off of.Tom Bosely was hilarious as the family doctor, with his deadpan approach. Seeing him later as Howard Cunningham in HAPPY DAYS, I wonder if he was really acting or was he simply being himself? He certainly has that dry wit down to an art.Oh, and then, there is that issue of age. Lucille Ball was 57 and Henry Fonda was around 61 when the movie was made. This issue is obviously irrelevant. The movie was a hit when it was released in 1968. And it obviously beats that remake in 2005, hands down, in spite of the age of leading roles in the remake.Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda rule!

Early in the film, Eric Shea, "Phillip" is getting a spanking and has all his front teeth. Later, after the marriage, he is shown with both his top and bottom front teeth missing and he says: "Maybe if he'd helped me sooner they wouldn't be falling out." I wish that the DVD had more information because I want to know if the actor, Eric Shea, lost his teeth during filming. Did they adapt his lines to fit his loss of teeth or did they give him false teeth for the earlier shot.I would like to see this movie with additional features. I wonder if the actors ever come here and read these comments. If so, they should leave some comments for the fans. Maybe Eric will see this and let us know what he remembers.