Customer Reviews

Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My parents went to see this movie on their first date and soon after blended two large families together, much in the same manner as the Beardsleys and Norths. I am extremely grateful to the tellers of this story for inspiring my parents to marry, thus giving me the best mother in the world.

Though this is a comedy, and bits of it are truly hilarious, it is not overdone and focuses well on important family issues. Lucille Ball is very much not Lucy in this film, and is the perfect blend of serious and funny. Many of the younger actors are very recognizable despite their youth including Tim Matheson and Tracy Nelson who, due to her smile and other facial features, is easy to spot as the approximately three-year-old Jermaine.

The dual narration, assembly line lunch making, industrial laundry chores, military-like logistics for bathroom sharing, and grocery shopping for an apparent army are all interestingly staged. The movie also includes a nice variety of settings including the crowded house, bar, aircraft carrier, clinic, navel base, school, commissary, and hospital.

This is an uplifting family story and a wonderful Christmastime feel-good movie, though it is fun to watch all year round.

J.H. Sweet, author of The Fairy Chronicles

I agree. I love this movie too but I will not buy an edited pan and scan DVD and that is why I opted instead to pop a video into my VCR and tape this movie when TCM was showing it in widescreen and wait and hope that MGM/UA will release a widescreen DVD because when it comes down to it I would much rather have this wonderful movie on a DVD then video but that will only happen if it's widescreen!

This is a 4 star film reduced to 1 star because it's been butchered down from widescreen to standard screen for no reason whatsoever.

Heck, you NEED the vast viewing range of wonderful widescreen in this flick just to keep track of all those dang kids!

It was shot in widescreen in 1968, as were about 95% of all films made after 1953, so there's no excuse for chopping it down to this putrid pan-and-scan nightmare. Another Amazon reviewer (from Derby, CT) said it all about this ridiculous ripoff of an otherwise very cute movie:

"Great film but who wants to watch a film like this in pan and scan format. Listen up studios, WIDESCREEN, WIDESCREEN, WIDESCREEN!!!!"

A friend brought this over today for us to watch together. I had my doubts, for we generally steer clear of movies made in the 60's and later, and we even avoid some 50's films. I vaguely remember seeing this when I was a child, but remembered nothing. So anyway, I obliged my friend and watched. I must say my doubts were correct, and we were both disappointed. It was typical of 60's and onward movies, where all the children have to be bratty and have attitudes, disrespect parents, etc. I don't appreciate Hollywood's way of picturing children in this light. And I don't want my children to watch other children who behave in this way. I felt the parenting was not the greatest either...I mean, if your son is up late reading a Playboy magazine, would you just quietly slip it from his hand and say nothing about it? I found that scene very weird. There were also other suggestive and sexual things about this film, though subtle, that would make me not allow my children to watch this film. Nor did I appreciate the scene where the boys make Lucy's drink so strong she gets drunk. How interesting though, when she tasted it, she looked just like she did when she first tasted "Vitameatavegamin" on her TV show! Lucy will always be "I Love Lucy" in my mind, and noone else. I don't care for Henry Fonda much, but in this he was a bit more tolerable than usual. Maybe because he was older. One scene that was funny was how they both were grocery shopping (after marriage) and had 4 overflowing carts of groceries, and you are wondering what the bill is going to come to, and here it was only $126! Wow, for 4 carts of groceries! How the times have changed. But I remember growing up in the 70's and my mom only spent $40 a week for our family of 6. Now, I am sure they would have had to spend closer to $500, maybe more, for all those groceries. The 60's hairstyles and clothes were so so so disgusting...I can't believe people actually dressed like that. I think the late 60's and all of the 70's is a time that would be nice to be erased from the memory of fashion history. But then, we see much of it back today. Why??? I want to say too, that not all large families operate like it is chaos going on all the time. I have known many large families who really have it together. Well, I haven't a whole lot to say, for it was only a so-so film and one I won't watch again. Neither will my friend. I mostly wanted to say to parents who really care about presenting their children with good values and morals, that I wouldn't recommend this as a family film. If you want to watch a 60's film with nice children, watch The Sound of Music. Or get your children some nice classic films from the 20's-40's to watch. My children love the old films, even silent ones. I am sure yours would too.

That's what my seven-year-old bellowed when she found the DVD! One late night when she was sick, we were searching for something acceptable and un-infomercially to watch and we found Yours Mine and Ours. Lucy looks great, as does Mr. Fonda, although I did find Van Johnson's eyes to be a bit weird (or maybe that's just me). If you watch closely you can catch little Tracy Nelson (Think snob/valley girl from Square Pegs w/Sarah Jess. Parker, and weird, visting sister on Melrose Place) And a very young Tim Matheson, playing, (I think the eldest) of too many children to count. There are some funny, and semi-mature scenes: Lucy gets drunk, and I mean DRUNK by accident,while having dinner at Henry's, Henry has a date with a "fast" woman, and there's a daughter being pressured by her Paul Newman-y boyfriend to [make love] (they even mention that he's Paul Newman-y in the movie!) But those scenes are quite tame and minor, compared to all the chaos and fun of bringing two groups of disgruntled kids together. The kids are great, but the movie is really Lucy and Henry's, as they try to keep it all together. The best way to sum it up is by simply saying Yours Mine and Ours is quite charming!

Great film but who wants to watch a film like this in pan and scan format. Listen up studios, WIDESCREEN, WIDESCREEN, WIDESCREEN!!!!

I wasn't really intending to write a review on this film, but when I saw another review with rather crude references to sterilization and how awful large families are, I just had to.

Having grown up in a large family myself, this is the kind of film that I feel at home watching. I am the oldest of six children, and while it was sometimes hectic--my gosh, was it fun! If I were married, I'm sure I would be having a large family, too.

I really loved the message of this movie. While Helen is in labor--"Dad, Dad! Mom says they're coming six minutes apart!"--her oldest daughter Colleen is agonizing over what to do about her boyfriend, who considers her old-fashioned and prudish. This is when Henry Fonda gives one of the best little speeches I have ever heard in the movies, about life and love. He basically says, "Until you're ready for this, [pregnancy] forget it."

In today's society, this message is sorely needed.

Having watched this movie when I was younger and having now on DVD I can only say that I still enjoy it. I have read those reviewers who complained about the disrespect shown towards the adults by the children. Perhaps they fail to realize that this movie is based upon a real story and real people. Not the standard "TV Family" of the time. As a result the children act like real people and are not perfect. The movie shows them growing into the acceptance of each other and their new family until, at the end, they merge into one family. One must also consider the time of the movie. The 1960's saw the Beattles, Flower Power, and Make Love Not War come into being.

Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda are both excellent in their role as loving but harried parents trying to blend two families into one without going crazy. The ups and downs they have are played for fun but even so the feeling of a real family comes through. As parents, both are willing to give up their own feelings to help the other and their children. They present a good example of loving parents trying to adjust to life in a crowd of 18 children.

Oddly enough, at the time I first watched and fell in love with this movie, I never once thought about its year-later predecessor "The Brady Bunch." I mention that because this story (based on a biography by the real Helen North Beardsley) is so good and surprisingly astringent in its parent/child portrayals, it stands completely on its own- and if it happened to spin off a much more sanitized TV series, more power to it. What a wonderful thing to put two veterans of film and TV in the lead roles; some reviews have taken pains to mention that Ball and Fonda are a little advanced in age, but my feeling is they look- and more importantly ACT- like parents of a large brood of kids should. It's only a bonus for me that they are presented in a love story that isn't about cynical, worldly 20-year olds for once. They are allowed to discover love the second time around and actually be nervous about it!! They look great together, and perform even better. The real gem of the film is in the smart dialogue: The first date where one asks the other "you DO like children, don't you?" and the other says "yeah- within reason!" is only matched with the realization that "eight and ten is-- ridiculous!!" The film's a charmer.

What happens when a widower with ten kids and a widow with eight kids cross paths in a San Francisco Naval commissary? The new American family circa 1968. Helen North (Lucille Ball), a Naval nurse, meets Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a Naval officer, and the sparks fly instantly. Despite their reservations about their interest in each other due to their children, they give love a second chance and marry. Frank uses his Naval intellect while Helen uses her love of family to care for this very large brood. There are many one liners about the generation gap that will make you laugh. Lucille Ball has a fabulously funny scene were she is drunk due to the boys spiking her drink. Henry Fonda has nutty Van Johnson as his side kick. Watch for their huge grocery bill of $126. Can't begin to imagine what their grocery bill would look like today.