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Yours, Mine and Ours (1968 film)
Encyclopedia
For the remake of this film starring Dennis Quaid
and Rene Russo
see Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine and Ours is a 1968 film, directed by Melville Shavelson
and starring Lucille Ball
, Henry Fonda
and Van Johnson
. Before its release, it had three other working titles: The Beardsley Story, Full House, and His, Hers, and Theirs.
It was based loosely on the story of Frank and Helen Beardsley
, although Desilu Productions
bought the rights to the story long before Helen's autobiographical
book Who Gets the Drumstick? was released to bookstores. Screenwriters Madelyn Pugh
and Bob Carroll
wrote several I Love Lucy
-style stunts that in most cases had no basis in the actual lives of the Beardsley family, before Melville Shavelson
and Mort Lachman took over primary writing duties. The film was commercially successful, and even the Beardsleys themselves appreciated it.
This film was remade
in 2005 with Dennis Quaid
and Rene Russo
as Frank and Helen Beardsley.
and Lucille Ball
take turns providing voice-over narration throughout—and in at least one scene, Van Johnson
talks directly to the camera (a technique known as breaking the fourth wall), as does Fonda.
Henry Fonda
's character, Frank Beardsley, is a Roman Catholic Navy
warrant officer
, recently detached from the aircraft carrier
USS Enterprise
and assigned as project officer for the Fresnel lens
glide-slope indicator, or "meatball," that would eventually become standard equipment on all carriers. Lucille Ball
's character, Helen North, is a Roman Catholic nurse working in the dispensary
at the California
naval base to which Frank is assigned.
Frank meets Helen, first by chance in the commissary
on the Naval base (presumably Alameda Naval Air Station, though it is never identified) and then when Frank brings his distraught teen-age daughter for treatment at the dispensary, where Helen informs him that the young lady is simply growing up in a too-crowded house that lacks a mother's guidance. They immediately hit it off and go on a date, all the while shying away from admitting their respective secrets: Frank has ten children and Helen has eight, from previous marriages that ended in their spouses' deaths.
When each finally learns the other's secret, they initially resist their mutual attraction. But Chief Warrant Officer Darrell Harrison (Van Johnson
) is determined to bring them together. To that end, he "fixes up" each of them with a blind date that is sure to be incompatible. Helen's date is an obstetrician (Sidney Miller
) who stands a good head shorter than she; this prompts Helen to observe in voice-over, "Darrell had a malicious sense of humor." Frank's date is a "hip" girl (Louise Troy
) who is not only young enough to be one of his daughters, but also is far too forward for his taste. As the final touch, Harrison makes sure that both dates take place in the same Japanese restaurant. As Harrison fully expects, Frank and Helen end up leaving the restaurant together in his car, with Frank's date sitting uncomfortably between the two as they carry on about their children.
Frank and Helen continue to date regularly, and eventually he invites her for dinner in his home. This turns nearly disastrous when Mike, Rusty, and Greg (Tim Matheson
, Gil Rogers, and Gary Goetzman
), Frank's three sons, mix hefty doses of gin, scotch, and vodka into Helen's drink. As a result Helen behaves in a wild and embarrassing manner, which Frank cannot comprehend until he catches his sons trying to conceal their laughter. "The court of inquiry is now in session!" he declares, and gets the three to own up and apologize. After this, he announces his intention to marry, adding, "And nobody put anything into my drink."
Most of the children fight the union at first, regarding each other and their respective stepparents with suspicion. Eventually, however, the eighteen children bond into one large blended family
, about to become a little larger when Helen becomes pregnant.
Further tension develops between young Philip North and his teacher at the parochial school
that he attends, because his teacher insists that he use his "legal" name (which remains North even after his mother's marriage to Beardsley). This prompts Frank and Helen to discuss cross-adopting one another's children. At first the children (except for Philip) are aghast at the notion of "reburying" their respective deceased biological parents. Yet the subsequent birth of Joseph John Beardsley finally unites the children, and they agree unanimously to the adoption
under a common surname.
The film ends with Mike Beardsley, the eldest, going off to Camp Pendleton to begin his stint in the United States Marine Corps
.
and their children. The names of Frank and Helen Beardsley and their children are real. (In fact, the wedding invitation that appears midway through the film is the actual invitation that went out to Frank and Helen's real guests.) The career of Lieutenant
Richard North USN is also described accurately, but briefly: specifically, he was a navigator on the crew of an A-3 Skywarrior
that crashed in a routine training flight, killing all aboard, exactly as Lucille Ball (portraying Helen) describes in the script. Frank Beardsley is described correctly as a Navy warrant officer. The "loan-out" of the two youngest Beardsley daughters is also real, and indeed Michael, Charles ("Rusty"), and Gregory Beardsley were determined to see their father marry Helen North as a means of rectifying this situation. The movie correctly describes Frank Beardsley as applying his Navy mind-set to the daunting task of organizing such a large family (although the chart with the color-coded bathrooms and letter-coded bedrooms--"I'm Eleven Red A!"--is probably a typical Hollywood exaggeration). Finally, Michael Beardsley did indeed serve a term in the Marines, as did his brother Rusty.
The similarities, however, end at this point. The critical differences, which one may observe by comparing this movie to Helen Beardsley's book Who Gets the Drumstick?, include the following:
In addition to the above, the film distorts certain facts about Navy life and especially about flight operations aboard an aircraft carrier. Specifically:
As much as this film departed from the Beardsleys' actual life, the remake
departed even more significantly.
would portray Helen Beardsley was never in doubt. But a long line of distinguished actors came under consideration, at one time or another, for the role of Frank Beardsley. They included Desi Arnaz
, James Stewart
, Fred MacMurray
, Jackie Gleason
, Art Carney
, and John Wayne
. Henry Fonda
finally accepted, and indeed asked for, the role in a telephone conversation with Robert F. Blumofe in 1967. Ball, who had worked with Fonda before in the 1942 release The Big Street
, readily agreed to the casting.
One account says that Ball recalled in 1961 that Desilu Productions
first bought the rights to the Beardsley-North story in 1959, even before Helen Beardsley published her biography. This is highly unlikely, however, as Frank and Helen Beardsley married on September 6, 1961.
More likely is the story that Bob Carroll
and his wife brought the story of the Beardsley family to Ball's attention after reading it in a local newspaper. Mr. Carroll's memory must have been faulty, because he is said to recall his wife mentioning the story in 1960—again, a full year before the Beardsleys were married and probably when Dick North was still alive.
In any event, Desilu Productions did secure the rights early on, and Mr. Carroll and Madelyn Pugh
began at once to write a script.
Production suffered multiple interruptions for a variety of reasons. It began in December of 1962 after Ball's abortive attempt at a career on the Broadway
stage. In 1963, production was halted after the box-office failure of her comedy effort Critic's Choice
(with Bob Hope
). Later, she had a falling-out with Madelyn Pugh (then known as Madelyn Pugh Martin) and Bob Carroll, precisely because their script overly resembled an I Love Lucy television episode, and commissioned another writer (Leonard Spigelgass
) to rewrite the script. Mr. Spigelgass does not seem to have succeeded in breaking free of Lucy's television work, so producer Robert Blumofe hired yet two more writers (Mickey Rudin and Bernie Weitzman) to make an attempt. This, too, failed, so Blumofe hired Melville Shavelson
, who eventually directed. All further rewrite efforts came to an abrupt end at the insistence of United Artists
, the film's eventual distributor.
At this point in the production cycle, Helen Beardsley
's book Who Gets the Drumstick? was actually released (1965). Helen Beardsley nowhere states that anyone at Desilu Productions ever contacted her to discuss remuneration or even elementary fact-checking. Exactly how much the book informed the final shooting script is impossible to determine—although the book did receive an explicit "based on" credit in the opening titles.
Production began in 1967 with Henry Fonda
definitely signed on to portray Frank. Mort Lachman, who had been one of Bob Hope
's writers, joined the writing team at the recommendation of Shavelson. (Leonard Spigelgass did not receive any on-screen writing credit for his efforts in this film.)
One thing that made production especially difficult was the condition of Ball's face. Years of make-up had taken their toll, and she was very much concerned about whether the cinematographer
could light her face properly. The measures that the cinematographer and make-up crew took appear to have been successful, by all accounts.
Filming was done largely on-location in Alameda
and San Francisco
, California
(one exception was Mike's high school graduation, which was filmed at Grant High School
in southern California). This represents another departure from the truth, in that Frank Beardsley's home, to which the blended family eventually moved, was in Carmel
. The total budget is estimated at $2,500,000 US, including $1,700,000 for actual filming and post-production.
The film ended up being a United Artists
production in association with Desilu. The copyright was renewed, however, by Paramount Pictures
, which had acquired Desilu, and producer Robert Blumofe, but UA has retained ancillary distribution rights via now-sister-studio MGM—both UA and MGM would ultimately become owned by a partnership led by Sony
, the parent of Columbia Pictures
. All this explains why MGM, Columbia, and Paramount, would partner on the 2005 Raja Gosnell
remake
.
, the film got a "Rotten" score of 50%, although the user section on the site was much more positive with a "Fresh" score of 77%
The film received lukewarm critical reviews—although Leonard Maltin
looked favorably upon it as a "wholesome, 'family' picture" with an excellent script.
It earned $17,000,000 US at the box office by January of 1970 and to date has earned $11,639,245 US in rentals. Thus it was the top-grossing film release by United Artists in its year. (Both figures are for U.S.
only.) This came about probably on the strength of Lucille Ball's name and performance (which many of her fans regard as a classic).
Frank Beardsley commented that his family enjoyed the film as general entertainment, and acknowledged that perhaps the scriptwriters felt that their screenplay was "a better story" than the truth.
Lucille Ball, unhappily, failed to make appropriate tax shelter
provisions for such a large profit, and thus saw most of her share going to pay taxes.
The success of the movie partly inspired network approval of the television series The Brady Bunch
(the original script for the series pilot was written well before this movie became a reality).
Among the child actors cast as the Beardsley and North children in the film, several went on to greater success, including Tim Matheson
(billed here as Tim Matthieson) who went on to play the character Otter in the more adult oriented comedy Animal House, Morgan Brittany
(billed here as Suzanne Cupito) appeared in many episodes of Dallas, Mitch Vogel
appeared in "The Reivers
" with Steve McQueen
for which Vogel received a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination in 1970 and Tracy Nelson
, daughter of actor/musician Ricky Nelson
who eventually starred in the series Father Dowling Mysteries
beside Tom Bosley
who portrayed the doctor in this movie.
The actor who played Mike Beardsley, Tim Matheson
, and the actress who played Colleen North, future soap opera actress Jennifer Leak
, married in real life, although they later divorced.
version was released in 1994, featuring noise reduction applied to the film soundtrack.
on March 6, 2001. The current release specifications are:
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
and Rene Russo
Rene Russo
- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
see Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine & Ours is a 2005 film starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. Directed by Raja Gosnell, it was released on November 23, 2005, and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda...
Yours, Mine and Ours is a 1968 film, directed by Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers, a job he held for the next...
and starring Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
, Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
. Before its release, it had three other working titles: The Beardsley Story, Full House, and His, Hers, and Theirs.
It was based loosely on the story of Frank and Helen Beardsley
Helen Beardsley
Helen Eileen Beardsley was the mother of the famous blended family of twenty children — eight by her first marriage to Richard North, ten stepchildren from the first marriage of her second husband Frank Beardsley, and two that she and Frank had during their marriage...
, although Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions was a Los Angeles, California-based company jointly owned by actors Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who were married to each other from 1940 to 1960....
bought the rights to the story long before Helen's autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
book Who Gets the Drumstick? was released to bookstores. Screenwriters Madelyn Pugh
Madelyn Pugh
Madelyn Pugh , sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, or Madelyn Martin, was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series....
and Bob Carroll
Bob Carroll (TV writer)
Bob Carroll Jr. , was a television writer notable for his creative role in the series I Love Lucy, the first four seasons of which he wrote with his professional partner Madelyn Pugh, and collaborator Jess Oppenheimer...
wrote several I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
-style stunts that in most cases had no basis in the actual lives of the Beardsley family, before Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers, a job he held for the next...
and Mort Lachman took over primary writing duties. The film was commercially successful, and even the Beardsleys themselves appreciated it.
This film was remade
Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine & Ours is a 2005 film starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. Directed by Raja Gosnell, it was released on November 23, 2005, and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda...
in 2005 with Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
and Rene Russo
Rene Russo
- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
as Frank and Helen Beardsley.
Plot
Henry FondaHenry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
take turns providing voice-over narration throughout—and in at least one scene, Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
talks directly to the camera (a technique known as breaking the fourth wall), as does Fonda.
Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
's character, Frank Beardsley, is a Roman Catholic Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
warrant officer
Warrant Officer
A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...
, recently detached from the aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
USS Enterprise
USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
USS Enterprise , formerly CVA-65, is the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth US naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed the "Big E". At , she is the longest naval vessel in the world...
and assigned as project officer for the Fresnel lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
glide-slope indicator, or "meatball," that would eventually become standard equipment on all carriers. Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
's character, Helen North, is a Roman Catholic nurse working in the dispensary
Dispensary
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies. In a traditional dispensary set-up a pharmacist dispenses medication as per prescription or order form....
at the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
naval base to which Frank is assigned.
Frank meets Helen, first by chance in the commissary
Commissary
A commissary is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.-Word history:...
on the Naval base (presumably Alameda Naval Air Station, though it is never identified) and then when Frank brings his distraught teen-age daughter for treatment at the dispensary, where Helen informs him that the young lady is simply growing up in a too-crowded house that lacks a mother's guidance. They immediately hit it off and go on a date, all the while shying away from admitting their respective secrets: Frank has ten children and Helen has eight, from previous marriages that ended in their spouses' deaths.
When each finally learns the other's secret, they initially resist their mutual attraction. But Chief Warrant Officer Darrell Harrison (Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
) is determined to bring them together. To that end, he "fixes up" each of them with a blind date that is sure to be incompatible. Helen's date is an obstetrician (Sidney Miller
Sidney Miller (actor)
-As actor:*1988 Memories of Me*1983-1985 Dungeons & Dragons *1972 Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask*1955 The Donald O'Connor Show *1954 Dragnet...
) who stands a good head shorter than she; this prompts Helen to observe in voice-over, "Darrell had a malicious sense of humor." Frank's date is a "hip" girl (Louise Troy
Louise Troy
Louise Troy was an American actress of stage and screen. She is best known for her performances in Tovarich and Walking Happy , both of which she was nominated for a Tony Award...
) who is not only young enough to be one of his daughters, but also is far too forward for his taste. As the final touch, Harrison makes sure that both dates take place in the same Japanese restaurant. As Harrison fully expects, Frank and Helen end up leaving the restaurant together in his car, with Frank's date sitting uncomfortably between the two as they carry on about their children.
Frank and Helen continue to date regularly, and eventually he invites her for dinner in his home. This turns nearly disastrous when Mike, Rusty, and Greg (Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
, Gil Rogers, and Gary Goetzman
Gary Goetzman
Gary M. Goetzman is an American film and television producer, and is perhaps best known as co-founder of Playtone with Tom Hanks. Born in Los Angeles, Goetzman began his career as a child actor. In 1984, director Jonathan Demme tapped Goetzman to co-produce the Talking Heads concert film Stop...
), Frank's three sons, mix hefty doses of gin, scotch, and vodka into Helen's drink. As a result Helen behaves in a wild and embarrassing manner, which Frank cannot comprehend until he catches his sons trying to conceal their laughter. "The court of inquiry is now in session!" he declares, and gets the three to own up and apologize. After this, he announces his intention to marry, adding, "And nobody put anything into my drink."
Most of the children fight the union at first, regarding each other and their respective stepparents with suspicion. Eventually, however, the eighteen children bond into one large blended family
Stepfamily
A stepfamily, also known as a blended family or reconstituted family, is a family in which one or both members of the couple have children from a previous relationship...
, about to become a little larger when Helen becomes pregnant.
Further tension develops between young Philip North and his teacher at the parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...
that he attends, because his teacher insists that he use his "legal" name (which remains North even after his mother's marriage to Beardsley). This prompts Frank and Helen to discuss cross-adopting one another's children. At first the children (except for Philip) are aghast at the notion of "reburying" their respective deceased biological parents. Yet the subsequent birth of Joseph John Beardsley finally unites the children, and they agree unanimously to the adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
under a common surname.
The film ends with Mike Beardsley, the eldest, going off to Camp Pendleton to begin his stint in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
.
Cast
- Lucille BallLucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
as Helen Brandmeier North Beardsley - Henry FondaHenry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
as CWO Frank Beardsley, USN
Adult friends and relatives
- Van JohnsonVan JohnsonVan Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
as CWO Darrell Harrison, USN - Walter BrookeWalter BrookeWalter Brooke was an American actor. Brooke is best known for playing Mr. McGuire in The Graduate, where he said his famous line, "Plastics"....
as Howard Beardsley (Frank's brother, who in this film temporarily "borrows" Germaine and Joan Beardsley after Frank's detachment from the Enterprise.) - Nancy Howard as Nancy Beardsley (Frank's sister-in-law)
- Sidney MillerSidney Miller (actor)-As actor:*1988 Memories of Me*1983-1985 Dungeons & Dragons *1972 Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask*1955 The Donald O'Connor Show *1954 Dragnet...
as Dr. Ashford (Helen's date, an obstetrician who stands a good head shorter than she) - Louise TroyLouise TroyLouise Troy was an American actress of stage and screen. She is best known for her performances in Tovarich and Walking Happy , both of which she was nominated for a Tony Award...
as Madeleine Love (Frank's date, a "hip" girl young enough to be Frank's daughter) - Tom BosleyTom BosleyThomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...
as a family doctor who makes a house call on the Beardsleys in their "neutral" home. We later see this same doctor as the consulting physician for the CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Draft BoardSelective Service SystemThe Selective Service System is a means by which the United States government maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. Most male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of...
when Mike Beardsley reports for a required physical exam.
Frank's children
- Tim MathesonTim MathesonTim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
as Mike (credited as "Tim Matthieson") - Gil Rogers as Rusty
- Gary GoetzmanGary GoetzmanGary M. Goetzman is an American film and television producer, and is perhaps best known as co-founder of Playtone with Tom Hanks. Born in Los Angeles, Goetzman began his career as a child actor. In 1984, director Jonathan Demme tapped Goetzman to co-produce the Talking Heads concert film Stop...
as Greg - Nancy Roth as Rosemary
- Morgan BrittanyMorgan BrittanyMorgan Brittany is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her role in the 1980s primetime soap opera Dallas, where she portrayed Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes.-Early career:Under her birth name, Brittany...
as Louise (Credited as "Suzanne Cupito") - Holly O'Brien as Susan
- Michele Tobin as Veronica
- Maralee Foster as Mary
- Tracy NelsonTracy Nelson (actress)Tracy Kristine Nelson is an American actress.-Early life:Tracy Nelson is a third generation performer; her parents were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Nelson and actress/artist Kristin Nelson . She has three younger siblings: Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson of the '90s rock group Nelson,...
as Germaine - Stephanie Oliver as Joan
Helen's children
- Jennifer LeakJennifer LeakJennifer Leak is a Canadian film and television actress, best known for her role as Colleen North in the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours....
as Colleen - Kevin Burchett as Nick
- Kimberly BeckKimberly BeckKimberly Beck is an American actress with over sixty television and film roles to her credit.-Biography:...
as Janette - Mitch VogelMitch VogelMitch Vogel is a United States former child actor who left show business as at the age of 20. He was best known for his 1970-73 Bonanza role, where he played the teen orphan Jamie Hunter Cartwright...
as Tommy - Margot Jane as Jean
- Eric SheaEric SheaEric Shea , is an American actor. A professional child actor since the age of six, he is best known for his roles in the feature films Yours, Mine and Ours, The Poseidon Adventure, Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies, and The Castaway Cowboy, as well as for his numerous guest-starring appearances...
as Philip - Greg Atkins as Gerald
- Lynnell Atkins as Teresa
Other acquaintance
- Ben MurphyBen MurphyBenjamin E. Murphy is an American actor. He is known for his role in the ABC television series Alias Smith and Jones, co-starring as Kid Curry, first with Pete Duel and later with Roger Davis.-Early life:...
as Larry, Colleen's boyfriend - Jennifer GanJennifer GanJennifer Gan was a sixties pop culture actress who appeared in fourteen movie and television show titles starting in 1964. Prior to this she performed on the stage in musicals such as "Li'l Abner" in 1958, "The Pink Jungle" in 1959 starring Ginger Rogers and Agnes Moorehead and "No Strings" in 1962...
as Young Lady In Coffeehouse
Teachers, officials, etc.
- Mary Gregory as Sister Mary Alice, who questions Philip's use of the Beardsley name
- Harry Holcombe as the Judge who handles the grand mutual adoption
Frank's unsuccessful housekeepers
- Ysabel MacCloskeyYsabel MacCloskeyYsabel MacCloskey was a familiar American character actress best remembered as Aunt Hagatha in Bewitched.- Filmography :*Terror Among Us Mrs...
as Number One, who lasts less than a day. - Pauline Hague as Number Two, aka "Mrs. Anderson." She lasts a week—because she is hiding from the police. After a stint with the Beardsleys, she turns herself in.
- Marjorie Eaton as Number Three, aka "Mrs. Ferguson," who famously says, "Mrs. Anderson was last week; I'm Mrs. Ferguson, and you can mail me my check!" She has the fight with Louise that precipitates Frank's second meeting with Helen.
Truth versus fiction
This film departs in many critical ways from the actual lives of Frank and Helen BeardsleyHelen Beardsley
Helen Eileen Beardsley was the mother of the famous blended family of twenty children — eight by her first marriage to Richard North, ten stepchildren from the first marriage of her second husband Frank Beardsley, and two that she and Frank had during their marriage...
and their children. The names of Frank and Helen Beardsley and their children are real. (In fact, the wedding invitation that appears midway through the film is the actual invitation that went out to Frank and Helen's real guests.) The career of Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Richard North USN is also described accurately, but briefly: specifically, he was a navigator on the crew of an A-3 Skywarrior
A-3 Skywarrior
The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior was originally designed as a strategic bomber for the United States Navy and was among the longest serving carrier-based jet aircraft in history. It entered service in the mid-1950s and was retired in 1991...
that crashed in a routine training flight, killing all aboard, exactly as Lucille Ball (portraying Helen) describes in the script. Frank Beardsley is described correctly as a Navy warrant officer. The "loan-out" of the two youngest Beardsley daughters is also real, and indeed Michael, Charles ("Rusty"), and Gregory Beardsley were determined to see their father marry Helen North as a means of rectifying this situation. The movie correctly describes Frank Beardsley as applying his Navy mind-set to the daunting task of organizing such a large family (although the chart with the color-coded bathrooms and letter-coded bedrooms--"I'm Eleven Red A!"--is probably a typical Hollywood exaggeration). Finally, Michael Beardsley did indeed serve a term in the Marines, as did his brother Rusty.
The similarities, however, end at this point. The critical differences, which one may observe by comparing this movie to Helen Beardsley's book Who Gets the Drumstick?, include the following:
- The film changes the ages and birth order of many of the children. As a corollary to this, the film places some of the children, most notably Colleen and Philip North, into situations having no historical warrant. For example, Colleen North did not have a boyfriend who took inappropriate liberties with her.
- Contrary to the depiction in the film, Helen North and Frank Beardsley began their relationship by corresponding with one another in sympathy for similar losses that each had recently sustained: he of his wife and she of her husband. Furthermore, each knew exactly how many children the other had before their first meeting. Indeed, Frank and Helen did not meet by accident in a Navy commissary. Rather, Frank's sister told Helen about Frank's situation, and Helen wrote to Frank to offer her sympathy. (Similarly, on their first date, Helen made no attempt to hide her children from Frank.)
- Frank Beardsley was a yeoman (that is, a clerk) in the Navy and afterwards the personnel officer at the Naval Postgraduate SchoolNaval Postgraduate SchoolThe Naval Postgraduate School is an accredited research university operated by the United States Navy. Located in Monterey, California, it grants master's degrees, Engineer's degrees and doctoral degrees...
in Monterey, CaliforniaMonterey, CaliforniaThe City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. He played no role in the development of the "meatball," nor is he ever listed as having served aboard any ship named USS Enterprise.
- There is no historical warrant for the existence of Frank's "friend" CWO Darrell Harrison USN, the character portrayed by Van Johnson. In the film, CWO Harrison draws Frank and Helen together. Helen Beardsley says in Who Gets the Drumstick? that her own sister and brother played this role.
- Frank Beardsley never told his own story in print, and Helen provides very little description of Frank's home life before he married Helen. Nevertheless the historical warrant for Frank's home (before he marries Helen) not being exactly "shipshape," and for his not being able to keep a housekeeper longer than a week (see the Cast section above) is highly dubious.
- The couple who temporarily took care of Germaine and Joan Beardsley were not Frank's brother and sister-in-law, but were two unrelated friends of his.
- The North and Beardsley children received the prospect of Helen and Frank's marriage with enthusiasm and without reservation. Indeed, when Helen visited Frank at his house for the first time, she took her five oldest children in tow. They met some of their Beardsley counterparts and immediately became friends. From the moment that the prospect of Frank and Helen's marriage became real, the children all began regarding Frank and Helen as their parents and even brought pressure to bear on them to celebrate the marriage as soon as possible.
- The "drunken dinner scene" in which Mike, Rusty, and Greg Beardsley serve Helen North a double (or perhaps triple) screwdriverScrewdriver (cocktail)A screwdriver is a popular highball drink made with fresh orange juice and vodka. Outside the US, it is often referred to as "vodka and orange"...
with Scotch and ginGinGin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
, is without foundation. The scene is, however, reminiscent of the episode titled Lucy Does a TV CommercialLucy Does a TV Commercial"Lucy Does a TV Commercial" is the thirtieth episode of the 1950s television sitcom called I Love Lucy. It is possible that it is the most famous episode of the show. In 1997, TV Guide ranked this episode #2 on their list of the "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". In 2009, they ranked it #4 on...
in Lucille BallLucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
's television show I Love LucyI Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
in which she over-rehearses a television commercial for a vitamin elixir with a very high alcohol content. (Vitameatavegamin) This scene was probably a legacy contribution from Madelyn PughMadelyn PughMadelyn Pugh , sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, or Madelyn Martin, was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series....
(Davis) and Bob CarrollBob Carroll (TV writer)Bob Carroll Jr. , was a television writer notable for his creative role in the series I Love Lucy, the first four seasons of which he wrote with his professional partner Madelyn Pugh, and collaborator Jess Oppenheimer...
, two writers for I Love Lucy.
- Mike, Rusty, and Greg observed "company manners" from the beginning of Helen's first visit to the Beardsley home. Their gestures touched Helen greatly in a manner that the film fails utterly to convey.
- The blended family did not move into a neutral home. Instead, Frank Beardsley had bedrooms and bathrooms added to his existing home, and Helen North sold her home and moved into his. (However, the leaking-roof scene has a basis in an incident occurring to Helen North while she still lived on Whidbey IslandWhidbey IslandWhidbey Island is one of nine islands located in Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is located about north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington...
; that incident prompted her to move to California.)
- The North boy who was determined to be bad because "the good die young" was actually Nicholas North, not Philip. Likewise, it was Nicholas who first noticed that his teachers commanded him to continue to use the North name after his mother's marriage, even though at the time he preferred the Beardsley name. (However, the near-riot in the film, that a schoolteacher incites in her classroom over the naming issue, is also totally unfounded.)
- Philip's idolization of Mike, and Mike's willingness to be a role model to Philip, are real enough. However, all of Frank Beardsley's three eldest sons, not Mike alone, played this role in the blended family. Likewise, all of Helen North's sons, not Philip alone, lionized Mike (and Rusty and Greg). The high mutual respect that the stepbrothers developed for one another was one of the most important developments that knit the blended family into a functioning, harmonious whole. (In this regard, the petty jealousies between Frank's and Helen's children, as depicted in the film, are generally without foundation.)
- The one incident of mutual jealousy that did develop in real life—between the eldest of Frank's daughters and the eldest of Helen's daughters, between whom Helen had to mediate—was never depicted in the film.
- The children never objected to the massive cross-adoption by Frank and Helen of one another's biological children. The chief objectors fell into two groups: Richard North's brother and some of his other relatives, who objected to the "erasure" of Mr. North's name; and a large number of readers of a major magazine (which Helen Beardsley never named) who objected in principle to the adoption when that magazine mistakenly reported it as an accomplished fact. However, Frank and Helen ultimately ignored those objections in the face of more pressing and important consequences of their having married without initially adopting one another's children.
In addition to the above, the film distorts certain facts about Navy life and especially about flight operations aboard an aircraft carrier. Specifically:
- When Frank learns that Helen is pregnant (with Joseph John), he asks the catapult launch officer to stop the launch of the mail plane to permit him to board it. But that officer does not have that authority. In fact, the Air Boss is the lowest-ranking officer who can stop the launch of an aircraft, and normally he does not keep station on the flight deck at all.
- Frank is seen wearing a ship's ballcap, and then a combination cap. Neither sort of cap would be permitted, as they constitute a foreign object damageForeign object damageForeign Object Debris is a substance, debris or article alien to a vehicle or system which would potentially cause damage.Foreign Object Damage is any damage attributed to a foreign object that can be expressed in physical or economic terms that may or may not degrade the product's required...
hazard. Furthermore, no one would be permitted on the flight deck during active flight operations without wearing helmet, goggles, and ear plugs.
As much as this film departed from the Beardsleys' actual life, the remake
Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine & Ours is a 2005 film starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. Directed by Raja Gosnell, it was released on November 23, 2005, and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda...
departed even more significantly.
Background and production
That Lucille BallLucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
would portray Helen Beardsley was never in doubt. But a long line of distinguished actors came under consideration, at one time or another, for the role of Frank Beardsley. They included Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
, James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, Fred MacMurray
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....
, Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
, Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
, and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
finally accepted, and indeed asked for, the role in a telephone conversation with Robert F. Blumofe in 1967. Ball, who had worked with Fonda before in the 1942 release The Big Street
The Big Street
The Big Street is a 1942 American drama film, starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, based on the short story "Little Pinks" by Damon Runyon, who also produced the movie. The film was directed by Irving Reis...
, readily agreed to the casting.
One account says that Ball recalled in 1961 that Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions was a Los Angeles, California-based company jointly owned by actors Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who were married to each other from 1940 to 1960....
first bought the rights to the Beardsley-North story in 1959, even before Helen Beardsley published her biography. This is highly unlikely, however, as Frank and Helen Beardsley married on September 6, 1961.
More likely is the story that Bob Carroll
Bob Carroll (TV writer)
Bob Carroll Jr. , was a television writer notable for his creative role in the series I Love Lucy, the first four seasons of which he wrote with his professional partner Madelyn Pugh, and collaborator Jess Oppenheimer...
and his wife brought the story of the Beardsley family to Ball's attention after reading it in a local newspaper. Mr. Carroll's memory must have been faulty, because he is said to recall his wife mentioning the story in 1960—again, a full year before the Beardsleys were married and probably when Dick North was still alive.
In any event, Desilu Productions did secure the rights early on, and Mr. Carroll and Madelyn Pugh
Madelyn Pugh
Madelyn Pugh , sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, or Madelyn Martin, was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series....
began at once to write a script.
Production suffered multiple interruptions for a variety of reasons. It began in December of 1962 after Ball's abortive attempt at a career on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage. In 1963, production was halted after the box-office failure of her comedy effort Critic's Choice
Critic's Choice (1963 film)
Critic's Choice is a 1963 film comedy directed by Don Weis. Based on the 1960 Broadway play of the same name by Ira Levin, the movie starred Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and included Rip Torn, Marilyn Maxwell, Jim Backus, Marie Windsor and Jerome Cowan in the cast.This was the last of four films that...
(with Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
). Later, she had a falling-out with Madelyn Pugh (then known as Madelyn Pugh Martin) and Bob Carroll, precisely because their script overly resembled an I Love Lucy television episode, and commissioned another writer (Leonard Spigelgass
Leonard Spigelgass
Leonard Spigelgass was an American film producer and screenwriter.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Spigelgass got his start collaborating on the script for Erich Von Stroheim's Hello, Sister!...
) to rewrite the script. Mr. Spigelgass does not seem to have succeeded in breaking free of Lucy's television work, so producer Robert Blumofe hired yet two more writers (Mickey Rudin and Bernie Weitzman) to make an attempt. This, too, failed, so Blumofe hired Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson
Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers, a job he held for the next...
, who eventually directed. All further rewrite efforts came to an abrupt end at the insistence of United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, the film's eventual distributor.
At this point in the production cycle, Helen Beardsley
Helen Beardsley
Helen Eileen Beardsley was the mother of the famous blended family of twenty children — eight by her first marriage to Richard North, ten stepchildren from the first marriage of her second husband Frank Beardsley, and two that she and Frank had during their marriage...
's book Who Gets the Drumstick? was actually released (1965). Helen Beardsley nowhere states that anyone at Desilu Productions ever contacted her to discuss remuneration or even elementary fact-checking. Exactly how much the book informed the final shooting script is impossible to determine—although the book did receive an explicit "based on" credit in the opening titles.
Production began in 1967 with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
definitely signed on to portray Frank. Mort Lachman, who had been one of Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
's writers, joined the writing team at the recommendation of Shavelson. (Leonard Spigelgass did not receive any on-screen writing credit for his efforts in this film.)
One thing that made production especially difficult was the condition of Ball's face. Years of make-up had taken their toll, and she was very much concerned about whether the cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
could light her face properly. The measures that the cinematographer and make-up crew took appear to have been successful, by all accounts.
Filming was done largely on-location in Alameda
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
and San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(one exception was Mike's high school graduation, which was filmed at Grant High School
Grant High School (Los Angeles, California)
Ulysses S. Grant High School is a secondary school in the Valley Glen neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the east-central San Fernando Valley. It is located adjacent to Los Angeles Valley College....
in southern California). This represents another departure from the truth, in that Frank Beardsley's home, to which the blended family eventually moved, was in Carmel
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
. The total budget is estimated at $2,500,000 US, including $1,700,000 for actual filming and post-production.
The film ended up being a United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
production in association with Desilu. The copyright was renewed, however, by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, which had acquired Desilu, and producer Robert Blumofe, but UA has retained ancillary distribution rights via now-sister-studio MGM—both UA and MGM would ultimately become owned by a partnership led by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, the parent of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. All this explains why MGM, Columbia, and Paramount, would partner on the 2005 Raja Gosnell
Raja Gosnell
Raja Raymond Gosnell is an American film director and editor best known for directing films like Never Been Kissed, Big Momma's House, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and most recently, The Smurfs...
remake
Yours, Mine and Ours (2005 film)
Yours, Mine & Ours is a 2005 film starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. Directed by Raja Gosnell, it was released on November 23, 2005, and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda...
.
Reception
On the review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film got a "Rotten" score of 50%, although the user section on the site was much more positive with a "Fresh" score of 77%
The film received lukewarm critical reviews—although Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
looked favorably upon it as a "wholesome, 'family' picture" with an excellent script.
It earned $17,000,000 US at the box office by January of 1970 and to date has earned $11,639,245 US in rentals. Thus it was the top-grossing film release by United Artists in its year. (Both figures are for U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
only.) This came about probably on the strength of Lucille Ball's name and performance (which many of her fans regard as a classic).
Frank Beardsley commented that his family enjoyed the film as general entertainment, and acknowledged that perhaps the scriptwriters felt that their screenplay was "a better story" than the truth.
Lucille Ball, unhappily, failed to make appropriate tax shelter
Tax shelter
Tax shelters are any method of reducing taxable income resulting in a reduction of the payments to tax collecting entities, including state and federal governments...
provisions for such a large profit, and thus saw most of her share going to pay taxes.
The success of the movie partly inspired network approval of the television series The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
(the original script for the series pilot was written well before this movie became a reality).
Among the child actors cast as the Beardsley and North children in the film, several went on to greater success, including Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
(billed here as Tim Matthieson) who went on to play the character Otter in the more adult oriented comedy Animal House, Morgan Brittany
Morgan Brittany
Morgan Brittany is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her role in the 1980s primetime soap opera Dallas, where she portrayed Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes.-Early career:Under her birth name, Brittany...
(billed here as Suzanne Cupito) appeared in many episodes of Dallas, Mitch Vogel
Mitch Vogel
Mitch Vogel is a United States former child actor who left show business as at the age of 20. He was best known for his 1970-73 Bonanza role, where he played the teen orphan Jamie Hunter Cartwright...
appeared in "The Reivers
The Reivers
The Reivers, published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. Faulkner previously won this award for his book A Fable, making him one of only three authors to be awarded it more than once...
" with Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
for which Vogel received a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination in 1970 and Tracy Nelson
Tracy Nelson (actress)
Tracy Kristine Nelson is an American actress.-Early life:Tracy Nelson is a third generation performer; her parents were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Nelson and actress/artist Kristin Nelson . She has three younger siblings: Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson of the '90s rock group Nelson,...
, daughter of actor/musician Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
who eventually starred in the series Father Dowling Mysteries
Father Dowling Mysteries
Father Dowling Mysteries is an American television mystery series that appeared between November 30, 1987 and May 2, 1991. For its first season, the show was on NBC; it moved to ABC network for its last two seasons...
beside Tom Bosley
Tom Bosley
Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...
who portrayed the doctor in this movie.
The actor who played Mike Beardsley, Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
, and the actress who played Colleen North, future soap opera actress Jennifer Leak
Jennifer Leak
Jennifer Leak is a Canadian film and television actress, best known for her role as Colleen North in the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours....
, married in real life, although they later divorced.
Laserdisc
A LaserdiscLaserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
version was released in 1994, featuring noise reduction applied to the film soundtrack.
DVD
The film was released to DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on March 6, 2001. The current release specifications are:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame – 1.33 (The original film was a widescreenWidescreenWidescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
release; this therefore constitutes a pan and scanPan and scanPan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
.) - Single Side – Single Layer (DVD-5)
- Audio:
- Dolby Digital Stereo – EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
- Dolby Digital Stereo – FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
- Dolby Digital Mono – SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
- Additional Release Material:
- Trailer
Awards and nominations
- Lucille BallLucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. - The film itself was a candidate for the Golden Globe Award for Best Musical or Comedy Picture of 19681968 in filmThe year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
. - Lucille Ball won the Golden Laurel award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy. Henry FondaHenry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
placed third in the Golden Laurels for Best Male Performance in a Comedy. - The film itself won the Golden Laurel for Best General Entertainment Film.
- Melville ShavelsonMelville ShavelsonMelville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers, a job he held for the next...
and Mort Lachman received a nomination for the 19691969 in filmThe year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
Writers Guild of America AwardWriters Guild of America AwardThe Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
for Best-written American Comedy.
External links
- "Official" site of the actual family of Frank and Helen Beardsley, a valuable reference that includes key differences between Helen Beardsley's biography and the films.
- Movie review of Yours, Mine and Ours on Clown Ministry