With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)

This is a movie that I always avoided watching in the past. I watched it last night and I really liked it. Doris Day is Abby, a divorcée with three sons. Two of them are little rambunctious hellions but funny. The oldest son has just graduated. Brian Keith plays Jake a divorced parent with a daughter (Barbara Hershy in her first movie role) who has also just graduated. There is immediate resentment by the two oldest kids and it gets pretty funny. George Carlin appears as the waiter at the drive in. When they mentioned drive in back then it meant a place to eat not see movies. You can see from Carlin's portrayal that he has already developed his edgy voice and mannerisms. There is chaos when the two families are joined in wedlock. Neither house is big enough for the new family. They decide to sell both homes and buy a bigger place. Every thing comes out well (it usually did in a Doris Day film) When they all end up at a police station and end up defending each other as family. I liked it and while some of the stuff especially the ending, may seem contrived, relax, it is a typical Hollywood rom-com for the time period. Overall an entertaining and funny movie.

When wisecracking Pat Carroll quips that she doesn't understand why the parents are never the ones who run away, she probably gave a lot of mommies and daddies a good idea. You see, her pal (construction company boss Doris Day) has just eloped with Brian Keith, and the four kids in the mix have mixed ideas, particularly Day's oldest son and Keith's daughter. Sexual tension is sure to develop between these two 18 year olds, but the two youngest rambunctious pre-pubescents are cool with their new daddy.Sound like "The Brady Bunch", "The Partridge Family" and "Yours, Mine, and Ours" with a touch of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" thrown in? Yes, it's sitcom-ish, but fun. Day goes off on stepdaughter Barbara Hershey like you've never seen her go off before, showing some huevos as she hands over the lady of the house duties to the spoiled teen not used to sharing daddy with another woman, let alone one he's sleeping with. She's also slightly bitchy, giving it to the flirtatious neighbor of Keith's who openly flirts with him, saying she was just taking a walk. "Nice night for street walking", Day tells her, to which I spit out my soda, not expecting something like that from the all-American good girl.Heading out of motion pictures into TV, Day was in a transitional stage of her life, but retains her likability that kept her as queen of the Box Office for 15 years. Keith suits Day as a screen partner, then involved in his own sitcom ("Family Affair"), and well remembered as a dad with two perplexing teenagers in "The Parent Trap". As the newlywed couple face crisis after crisis (switching between each of their houses to suit the four kids not ready for total change), the film is realistic in its identification with the structures of 60's families. Alice Ghostley, Jamie Farr and the family dog (who is first seen eating Day's wig, certain it is a possum) offer amusing scenes. The comedy bits are prevented from too much silliness, and are not very far fetched. It is guaranteed to leave you with a smile. After disasters like "Caprice" and "Where Were You Where the Lights Went Out?", Day could be happy that her film career concluded on a nice note.

Doris Day ended her film career with this rather lame little movie, one of many contributions to the "Let's-join-our-families-together" genre of the late 60s. "Your, Mine and Ours" covered the same material, only better, and "The Brady Bunch" brought it all to fruition a year later.The film wants to combine the standard Doris Day "sex farce" of the period, with a typical 60s family sitcom, and the results are disappointing, at best.The children are a bratty bunch, and the early screeching scenes almost made me turn the whole thing off. I did love seeing the styles, architecture and culture of the period, however, as I was a kid at the time of its release, myself. No, my parents didn't take me to see this - not surprising, being that this "G" rated movie likes to use the word "sex" quite a bit, and nobody is exactly a role-model. My first viewing was last night on TCM.I really hope that the Academy presents DD with an Honorary Oscar before she dies, but I consider this film to be an unfortunate footnote to her career.

WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLE had the timing misfortune of coming out in the movies at the same time as YOUR, MINE, AND HOURS, the Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball comedy about two people who get married and try to bring their individual broods of three kids each together. Here it was Doris Day and Brian Keith, trying to bring her three sons (John Findlater, Richard Steele, and Jimmy Bracken) and his daughter (a young Barbara Hershey) together, and finding it nearly impossible. Both Day and Keith are widowed, and they knew each other earlier, but their lives drifted apart. She became successful as an lumber yard owner, and he is a successful professional as well. Her sister, Pat Carroll, is trying to get her to remarry (one wonders why - Day's comment that she has a house full of sons and is not lonely, happens to be perfectly sensible...it's not like nobody is in the house since her husband died). Carroll forces the issue by calling Keith up and strong arming Day into inviting him to a dinner party mostly for her Day's clients. And, of course, things click perfectly between the two, until they "elope" to Las Vegas and marry without warning their kids. But that is just it: the kids' reactions to the marriage can make or break it.The kids are he normal bunch, with Findlater self-centered enough about his dates that he ignores his chores keeping his eyes on his brothers, and Hershey having become chief housekeeper for Keith. Naturally the two oldest ones clash all the time, as they are unused to having someone of their own age being suddenly in the way. Hershey keeps slighting Day, seeing her as a rival to her...until a fed up Day, when she hears Hershey complain about how she was a better house keeper, assigns Hershey all the chores for the day (a Friday) while Day goes out shopping. Ghostley (who was off that day) is a housekeeper who is constantly commenting on being overworked (but also quick to remind her boss Day that certain days she's off - or that Day is butting into Ghostley's personal time. Day is also aware of the gorgeous next door neighbor of Keith's (Elaine Devry) who has had her eye on Keith for some time too. Day is not thrilled to hear that Devry was Hershey's baby sitter in the past.The plot is identical to that of the Fonda - Ball film, although the twisted resolution is not quite the same (except in results). Watching it now is like seeing a major film that had many people in it who had substantial careers...but not necessarily on the big screen. Carroll was in several sit-coms in the the 1950s - 1980s. So was Herb Voland, who played her husband here. Alice Ghostly is recalled for BEWITCHED and DESIGNING WOMEN (although she did appear in other films, like THE FLIMFLAM MAN). A young George Carlin plays the manager of a drive in restaurant here - hardly showing his great stand-up wit. He was better in later film parts like OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE. Two flower children in the film would later reappear together and gain television immortality in M.A.S.H. as "Cpl. Klinger" and "Father Mulcahy" (Jamie Farr and William Christopher). A belligerent chicken farmer whose truck is crashed into twice by Day and Findlater is Vic Tayback, "Mel" on ALICE. And in his only major film credit, Alvin Melvin appeared as a put upon police officer listening to everyone yelling in his station at the end. Not quite as good as his roles in YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH, GOMER PYLE, or ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE. It is easy to recall that with all their fine movie work, both Day and Keith had decent successes in television too (in THE DORIS DAY SHOW and FAMILY AFFAIR). Actually the only star of the film with a substantial movie career after it was made was Hershey, as Day did retire from the screen...although Keith would still be available for movies up until the end, when his poor health led him to a tragic suicide.