Yours, Mine and Ours (1968 film)

''Yours, Mine and Ours'' is a 1968 American family comedy-drama 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.

Plot

Frank Beardsley is a Navy Chief 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 civilian nurse working in the dispensary at NAS Alameda, the California U.S. Navy base to which Frank is assigned.

Frank meets Helen, first by chance in the commissary on the base and again 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 ended by 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, so he "fixes up" each of them with a sure-to-be-incompatible blind date. Helen's date is an obstetrician ( Sidney Miller) who stands a good head shorter than she ("Darrell had a malicious sense of humor," Helen observes in voice-over); Frank's date is a "hip" girl ( Louise Troy) who is not only young enough to be his daughter, but is also 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 them as they carry on about their children.

Frank and Helen continue to date regularly, and eventually he invites her to dinner in his home. This nearly turns 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's behavior turns wild and embarrassing, 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 Helen, adding, "And nobody put anything into my drink."

Most of the children oppose the union at first, regarding each other and their respective stepparents with suspicion. Eventually, however, the 18 children bond into one large blended family, about to increase—Helen becomes pregnant.

Further tension develops between young Philip North and his teacher at the parochial school that he attends: his teacher insists that he use his "legal" name, which remains North even after his mother marries Beardsley. This prompts Helen and Frank to discuss cross-adopting each other's children, who (except for Philip) are aghast at the notion of "reburying" their deceased biological parents. The subsequent birth of Joseph John Beardsley finally unites the children, who agree unanimously to adoption under a common surname.

The film ends with the eldest sibling, Mike Beardsley, going off to Camp Pendleton to begin his stint in the United States Marine Corps.

Cast

* Henry Fonda as CWO Frank Beardsley, USN
* Lucille Ball as Helen Beardsley
* Van Johnson as CWO Darrell Harrison, USN
* Walter Brooke as Howard Beardsley (Frank's brother.)
* Nancy Howard as Nancy Beardsley (Frank's sister-in-law)
* Sidney Miller as Dr. Ashford (Helen's date)
* Louise Troy as Madeleine Love (Frank's date)
* Tom Bosley as a family doctor who makes a house call on the Beardsleys, and is also the consulting physician for the California Draft Board when Mike Beardsley reports for a required physical exam.
* Ben Murphy as Larry, Colleen's boyfriend

* Jennifer Gan as Young Lady In Coffeehouse
* Larry Hankin as Supermarket Clerk
* 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
* Ysabel MacCloskey as Nanny #1, who lasts less than a day.
*Pauline Hague as Nanny #2, 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 Nanny #3, aka "Mrs. Ferguson," who famously says, "Mrs. Anderson was last week; I'm Mrs. Ferguson, and you can mail me my check!" She fights Louise precipitating Frank's second meeting with Helen.

The Beardsley 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")
* Maralee Foster as Mary
* Holly O'Brien as Susan
* Michele Tobin as Veronica
* Tracy Nelson as Germaine
* Stephanie Oliver as Joan

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

Reality versus film

This film departs in several various ways from the actual lives of Frank and Helen Beardsley and their children. The names of Frank and Helen Beardsley and their children are real; the wedding invitation that appears midway through the film is the actual North-Beardsley wedding invitation. 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 Helen describes in the film. Frank Beardsley is described correctly as a Navy warrant officer. The "loan-out" of the two youngest Beardsleys 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 likely a Hollywood exaggeration). Finally, Michael Beardsley did indeed serve a term in the Marine Corps, as did Rusty.

The differences from what Helen Beardsley's book ''Who Gets the Drumstick?'' puts forth include the following:

* The film changes the ages and birth order of many of the children, and places some of the children, most notably Colleen and Philip North, into situations not mentioned in the book. For example, Colleen North is not mentioned in Beardsley's book as ever having 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 each other in sympathy for their recent losses. Furthermore, each knew how many children the other had before their first meeting, which was ''not'' by accident in a Navy commissary; Frank's sister told Helen about Frank's situation and she wrote to him to offer her sympathy. On their first date, Helen made no attempt to hide her children from Frank.
* Frank Beardsley was a yeoman in the Navy and afterward the personnel officer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He played no role in the development of the "meatball", nor is he listed as having served aboard any ship named USS ''Enterprise''.
* Frank's friend "CWO Darrell Harrison USN", the character (portrayed by Van Johnson) who draws Frank and Helen together, was invented for the film. Helen Beardsley writes in ''Who Gets the Drumstick?'' that her own sister and brother-in-law played this role.
* Frank Beardsley never told his own story in print, and Helen provides very little description of his homelife before he married her; there is no mention of Frank's home not being exactly "shipshape