Watch With Six You Get Eggroll For Free

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good concept, poorly executed.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

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.

My mom always tells me about how idiotically bad Doris Day's movies were: Day always played wholesome women who never had sex. I guess that Day figured that her final film appearance should be something more realistic. She plays widow Abby McClure, who hooks up with widower Jake Iverson (Brian Keith), and they get really close."With Six You Get Eggroll" - so called because of a scene in a Chinese restaurant - seems like a precursor to "The Brady Bunch" (accentuated by the presence of Allan Melvin, who played Alice's hubby Sam in the latter). It's not a great movie by any stretch, but it is pretty humorous in some scenes - namely the "yellow" scene. Also starring are Barbara Hershey, George Carlin, Vic Tayback, and Alice Ghostley (aka Esmerelda on "Bewitched").

This fun family film came out a few months after Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball's "Yours, Mine and Ours". As a youngster, I liked that picture better because it was FULL of kids (18 to be exact). These days, "Yours, Mine and Ours" gives me a headache and I avoid it at all costs. "Eggroll" creates the same step-family tension and only utilizes four children. What a bargain! Besides that, Doris Day wafts through this sitcom like a spring daisy. She was probably in her mid-40s here (and in her last movie to date), but she's fresh and funny throughout. I loved it when she spies Brian Keith in a go-go club with "a young chick" (his daughter) and says to sister Pat Carroll, "Why take a bus when you can fly?" There are big laughs and some thoughtful scenes and I enjoyed them--until the final 15 minutes when the picture goes to hell in a handbasket. Into this semi-realistic brew of changing houses and coming to an understanding, we get hippies, bikers, a chicken-truck driver and Brian Keith in his boxer shorts. It's a ridiculous turn of events triggered by a too-serious marital quarrel, and almost mitigates the sweet nature of the main characters. Nothing can derail Doris, though: she's so grounded in reality that you buy every emotion, every double-take, every line of dialogue. She's one of Hollywood's most underrated actresses. It may be "With Six You Get Eggroll", but Day plays the material like it's "Love Me Or Leave Me". **1/2 from ****

Along with "Yours, Mine and Ours" (Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda) this film marked the start of the "let's-create-a-family-by combining-each-of-ours" genre and soon several variations of the theme plowed their ways into theaters (including the much forgotten "Mulligan's Stew" where childless parents adopt a variety of ethnic representatives). It was a way to have "modern" family dramas survive in the ever changing marketplace. Looking like situation comedies found on television it was no surprise that they influenced what TV families of the 70's would look like. There was a chance to examine the ever increasing reality of divorce (disguised as widowship), yet still have a complete family unit. Of those that survived on television, "The Brady Bunch" and "Eight is Enough" are perhaps the most well known. No wonder abortion became popular! Soon these shows would be replaced by the examination of same sex parents (disguised as "good heterosexual friends") in such shows as "My Two Dads," and "Kate and Allie." Shows such as "The Cosby Show," "Home Improvement," and "Family Matters" brought television full circle so perhaps the 21st Century will see more single parent television and in another ten years a remake of "With Six You Get Eggroll." Of course the title would have to change for political correctness. How about "With Sex You Get Kids?" No wait, the pro-life groups won't like that. Ahhh, the sixties.