With Six You Get Eggroll

Plot synopsis:
Abby McClure (Doris Day) is a widow with three sons who runs the lumberyard her husband owned. Her matchmaking sister Maxine (Pat Carroll) tricks her into calling widower Jake Iverson (Brian Keith) and inviting him to the business dinner party Abby is having later that night. Not interested in the trouble his sexy, adultery-minded neighbor Cleo (Elaine Devry) is trying to get him into, Jake arrives at Abby's, only to be bored by all of the matchmaking dialogue. Jake makes up an excuse to leave, but later runs into Abby at an all-night supermarket. Embarrassed by being caught in a fib, Jake meets Abby at a local drive-in run by the wise-cracking Herbie (George Carlin) and the two stay out until 2 a.m. A romance develops, much to the chagrin of Jake's teenage daughter, Stacey (Barbara Hershey); and Abby's three sons, Flip, Mitch and Jason (John Findlater, Jimmy Bracken, and Richard Steele). The children make certain that neither Jake nor Abby can be comfortable at the other's home, so the pair wind up more than once at the drive-in, before finally falling in love. Getting fed up with the situation, they elope, not telling their children that they have married until the next day after being discovered in bed together.
Although now married, Abby's sons fight with Iverson's possessive daughter Stacey, while Flip and Stacey both are hostile to the idea of a step-parent. Even Abby's sheepdog and Jake's poodle are incompatible. Neither of their homes is large enough for the family of six—which doesn't include Abby's live-in maid Molly (Alice Ghostley), and while they move into Abby's house and eventually put Jake's up for sale, the newlyweds borrow a camper, which they use as a bedroom.
The morning after a bedtime argument, Abby drives off in a rage in the camper, with Jake falling out in the process, clad only in boxers and clutching a teddy bear. After running through the neighborhood, he enlists Herbie to give him some clothing and a ride back to his house. Once Abby discovers what has happened, she returns only to find Jake gone. She is joined by a band of hippies she meets when she shows up at the drive-in. When the camper collides with a livestock truck carrying chickens, Abby and the hippies are arrested. Hearing of the accident, Jake and the children rush to her rescue, colliding with the same chicken truck. The angry driver assaults Jake, and the children (and the pets) unite in his defense. At the station house parents and children are joyfully reconciled, and the family finally buys a huge two-story house big enough for a family of six, a maid, and two dogs.
The title of the movie comes from a scene where the family goes out for Chinese food, and one of the kids notices that because they are a large group, they get something extra. "Hey! With six you get eggroll!"

Tags: romantic

Review:
People have commented that Doris Day's later movies were not as good as the ones from the early '60s, but I disagree.
If you love the classic comedies of Doris Day, I heartily recommend this one..
Sadly, Doris Day's Last Film.
When I saw "With Six You Get Eggroll" in a plush New York theatre, I had no idea that it would be Doris Day's last film appearance.
This one was an old idea with a modern look: a widow with three boys marries a widower with a teenaged daughter (Barbara Hershey)and all hell breaks loose.Even though I am not partial to films with children in them or "family pictures", I enjoyed Miss Day's performance in this film as well as her supporting players.
People like Jaime Farr, Vic Taback, Jackie Joseph and George Carlin.Brian Keith was a "comfortable", but gruff leading man for Doris.
Many female stars avoided kids like the plague, but not Doris.
She could handle the situation.Even though this is a comedy, there were a couple of very dramatic scenes in which Doris shows what a marvelously serious actress she can be.
This came when she and Keith had a blowout about his daughter cleaning the house without any help from Doris' older son.
Day was so into the scene, you could see her actually shaking with anger.The film became a tearjerker at the end when everybody "saw the light" and came together after a big car chase, an accident and a fist fight.
This fun family film came out a few months after Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball's "Yours, Mine and Ours".
Besides that, Doris Day wafts through this sitcom like a spring daisy.
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.
It may be "With Six You Get Eggroll", but Day plays the material like it's "Love Me Or Leave Me".
Doris Day's last feature film is a pleasant success, although it somehow isn't recalled as a such.
Backtracking for a moment Ms. Day's 1960s "sex comedies" were very big at the box office.
They weren't the first "bad" movies Day did, but they did come at a time when she was a "superstar".
Day was able to make these bad movies better through her presence; as usual, she put a good effort into each assignment.By 1966, Day was firmly entrenched in the "Quigley Top 10" poll of box office stars, and had become a very dependable, consistent attraction.
It was a CBS-TV series deal that prevented Day from continuing her film career.
But, Day was committed to work on the television series, against her wishes, by the now deceased Mr. Melcher.Seeing the success of the earlier released Lucille Ball comedy "Yours, Mine and Ours" (1968), the studio promoted "With Six You Get Eggroll" as similar fare.
Actually, this film is a little better, overall (both are good movies).
Day reluctantly accepts self-professed sex-minded sister Pat Carroll's arrangement of a date with widow Brian Keith (as Jake Iverson).
Their courtship is marvelously depicted, thanks to fine scripting and performances.Some have debated whether or not the characters played by Day and Keith have pre-marital sex.
By the third act, the film has become more unfocused and ordinary, but it never really obliterates its appeal.******* With Six You Get Eggroll (8/7/68) Howard Morris ~ Doris Day, Brian Keith, John Findlater, Barbara Hershey.
Light comedy romance is Doris Day's last film.
But, Doris Day and Brian Keith carry it off fine, with the help of her three sons and his daughter.
This was Doris Day's last movie.
Except for her last few films, arranged by hubby Martin Melcher to bail out the estate he had poorly managed for years, Doris Day's star shone bright for movie and TV audiences alike for 25 years.
Many, many fans and movie buffs would have loved to see Day in more films.
She never won an Oscar but was nominated nine years for Golden Globes as the favorite female film star in the world – winning three times, in 1958, 1960, and 1963.Brian Keith's background is very different.
After that, he had many roles in films, TV movies and TV shows, and continued acting until his death in 1997 at age 75.
It's a good family film that may be a little slow for kids of the 21st century..
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).
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.
Unless someone persuades the 84 year old Doris Day to do an appearance in a Gloria Stuart like Titanic role, With Six You Get Eggroll will be her farewell big screen appearance.
Not exactly the greatest film to go out on.Anticipating The Brady Bunch by a year, With Six You Get Eggroll is a pleasant enough family comedy about another lovely lady only she's the one with three boys of her own.
Doris is a widow with sons Jimmy Bracken, Richard Steele, and John Findlater who's getting a lot of static from her sister Pat Carroll about her social life or lack thereof.
He's an old friend of Day's late husband who wouldn't you know it, is now a widower with a teenage daughter, Barbara Hershey.
If you've seen episodes of The Brady Bunch, Step By Step, and Life With Derek, I think you'll get the idea where the rest of this film is going.
Keith and Day look so comfortable together you do kind of wonder what their respective late spouses were like.
Look for George Carlin to make his big screen debut as an obnoxious fast food stand owner and Vic Tayback as the poultry truck driver whose repeated run-ins with both sides of the family brings them finally together.
And in that rather anarchistic climax note the presence of Jamie Farr and William Christopher as a pair of hippies who help the course of true love.With Six You Get Eggroll is an average screen comedy, but with all the blended family TV shows that have come and gone since, it's nothing no one hasn't seen before..
Doris Day's upbeat, cheery, and sunshiny career (with exceptions like "The Man who Knew Too Much," "Love Me or Leave Me," and "Julie") ended with "With Six You Get Eggroll," a film which shows how a father with one daughter gets along with a mother and her two sons, when the parents marry.
This is one of Ms. Day's not-so-subtle movies, as the laughs come courtesy mainly from the youngest boy and his disposition and his crazy antics dealing with the change forced on him.
I give this a '6', only because, while funny, it seems to come with a price of feeling rather uncouth, and maybe an embarrassment to the career of all concerned, including a young Barbara Hershey as Brian Keith's daughter.
Bass, this is one family film that will either be a hit with families laughing at obvious jokes or fall flat with those who demand more from a Doris Day outing..
'With Six You Get Eggroll' was yet another film as part of my Doris Day completest quest, being a fan and realising that there were still films of hers to see.
Day driving off in the trailer leaving Brian Keith in his underwear on the road stands out.Some of the story has an energetic bounce, and there are moments that really charm.
Pat Carroll is great fun in support, and it was nice to see George Carlin and a young Barbara Herschey.
One mustn't forget the personality-filled dog either.However, the children are rather annoying (not the first time that's been the case in a Doris Day film), while the production values have a very low-budget feel and looks very made for TV.
'With Six You Get Eggroll' gets rather absurd towards the end and the final scene is a sea of messy chaos.For all the fun, bouncy and charming parts of the story, there are also a few dull and tired moments that is suggestive of padding things out, and while the predictability is forgivable not so much is including very 60s elements like hippies and an appearance from The Greenshots that just date the film and a rather clumsy effort to make the film current of the time, inconsistent pacing, the messy final scenes and a sense that it would have fared better as an episode for a sit-com considering the relative thinness.In conclusion, not awful, not great, somewhat mixed instead.
My mom always tells me about how idiotically bad Doris Day's movies were: Day always played wholesome women who never had sex.
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).
Also starring are Barbara Hershey, George Carlin, Vic Tayback, and Alice Ghostley (aka Esmerelda on "Bewitched")..
This was Barbara Hershey's first film and Doris' last and that's about the most interesting thing about this poky sitcom posing as a theatrical film.
Similar to The Brady Bunch, Yours, Mine and Ours(68), and Day's own TV series, With Six YOu Get Eggroll was released the same year as 2001:A Space Odyssey, Rosemary's Baby, Faces, Planet of the Apes, Wild in the Streets, Pretty Poison, and The Night of the Living Dead, and it's a dull and witless comedy that was a relic even in 1968.
Talented Brian Keith takes a back seat to a bunch of "cute" kids, George Carlin, and a dog.
On the other hand, if you are discussing yours, mine and ours, remember that "With Six You Get Eggroll." There are plenty of films and television shows about blended families (e.g.
But this film is really a hybrid of the Day/Hudson pillow talkies, any Irma Bombeck story, and Laugh-In. Doris Day and her three boys have to share a home with Brian Keith and his daughter.
The theme has been done many times, the blending of two families and of course they children are at odds with that until some extremely contrived event pulls them together, with the standard misunderstandings due to poor/no communication thrown in.I've read other reviews and am surprised how may folks enjoyed this move, but if you're a Doris Day fan, choose something from the 50s.Initially I was going to give this 3 stars but bumped it to 4 as it was fun seeing William Christopher and Jamie Farr together prior to the M*A*S*H days, with Herb Voland as well who had a recurring role in some early M*A*S*H episodes.
There is also George Carlin and a few other familiar character actors you will certainly recognize not to mention a very young (and pretty) Barbara Hershey..
And it is this- while this is Doris Day's last film, it is also comedian George Carlin's first film and breakthrough into acting in movies (even though he was in a episode of That Girl).
B. Another formula comedy for Day just about ended her career....
WITH SIX YOU GET EGG ROLL is directed by Howard Morris (from television) and it shows, because it's the kind of tale that plays like a half-hour situation comedy padded out to feature film length--but with a scarcity of laughs, or to put it differently, only the number of laughs that would have been possible within the half-hour limits of a TV show.DORIS DAY decided to call it quits after this film--and it's rather easy to see why.
BRIAN KEITH, BARBARA HERSHEY, PAT CARROLL and ALICE GHOSTLEY do their best, but the script is the real problem and should have been left untouched for the big screen.Nothing much can be said in favor of it.
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.
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.
Good old time movie.
Doris Day is Abby, a divorcée with three sons.
Brian Keith plays Jake a divorced parent with a daughter (Barbara Hershy in her first movie role) who has also just graduated.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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..
Granted it follows a screwball comedy plot which was getting old by 1968, but Doris Day is excellent in this one.
Brian Keith, taking some vacation from Mr. French on Family Affair is in his patented father role here which he has much much practice with including the original- Disney - The Parent Trap.
A young Barbara Hershey is a delight here as Keith's daughter.
George Carlin is a rare find acting in a film character and he is here.
The minor roles have faces like Jamie Farr (Klinger on TV Mash), Vic Tayback (Mel on Alice), William Christopher ( Father Mulcahey on MASH), Pat Carroll (Disney), Alice Ghostly (Bewitched), Allan Melvin (Sgt Hacker on Gomer Pyle), and more.
They play Feelings, a really good song.A whole is is more than the sum of it's parts, but this is so much better than the big studios Yours Mine & Ours of the same year it is too bad the little studio film did not get more box office.
Doris goes out with a fairly good comedy..
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.
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).
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.
Alice Ghostly is recalled for BEWITCHED and DESIGNING WOMEN (although she did appear in other films, like THE FLIMFLAM MAN).
He was better in later film parts like OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE.
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.