Yours, Mine and Ours (1968 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.
Plot

Henry Fonda 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.

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. 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.
Cast

Lucille Ball as Helen Brandmeier North Beardsley
Henry Fonda as CWO Frank Beardsley, USN

Adult friends and relatives

Van Johnson as CWO Darrell Harrison, USN
Walter Brooke 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 Miller as Dr. Ashford (Helen's date, an obstetrician who stands a good head shorter than she)
Louise Troy as Madeleine Love (Frank's date, a "hip" girl young enough to be Frank's daughter)
Tom Bosley 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 California Draft Board when Mike Beardsley reports for a required physical exam.

Frank's children

Tim Matheson as Mike (credited as "Tim Matthieson")
Gil Rogers as Rusty
Gary Goetzman as Greg
Nancy Roth as Rosemary
Morgan Brittany as Louise (Credited as "Suzanne Cupito")
Holly O'Brien as Susan
Michele Tobin as Veronica
Maralee Foster as Mary
Tracy Nelson as Germaine
Stephanie Oliver as Joan


Helen's children

Jennifer Leak as Colleen
Kevin Burchett as Nick
Kimberly Beck as Janette
Mitch Vogel as Tommy
Margot Jane as Jean
Eric Shea as Philip
Greg Atkins as Gerald
Lynnell Atkins as Teresa

Other acquaintance

Ben Murphy as Larry, Colleen's boyfriend
Jennifer Gan 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 MacCloskey 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.