With Six You Get Eggroll

With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) starring Doris Day, Brian Keith

Synopsis of With Six You Get Eggroll

In With Six You Get Eggroll, Abby McClure, a widow with three sons, and Jake Iverson, a widower with a teenage daughter, begin dating and eventually decide to get married. But they’re not prepared for the hostile reactions from their children, who are not very excited about the new union between the two families.

Review of With Six You Get Eggroll

In short, With Six You Get Eggroll is an enjoyable romantic comedy, about two widowers. Neither is looking to remarry, much less fall in love. But they do, and the courtship is very sweet. It’s more zany than the similar Yours, Mine, and Ours — and much more enjoyable than The Brady Bunch.

It’s got a much more adult story than the Brady show — and I don’t mean people taking off their clothes. There’s quite a bit of stress as the two families try to meld together, with the children kicking and screaming all the way. There’s a lot of stress on the newlyweds, including sleeping in a camper. The end is funny, zany, and satisfying.

In short, I enjoyed the family comedy of With Six You Get Eggroll. It tackles a serious subject without taking itself too seriously. I recommend it, and rate it 3 stars.

Editorial review of With Six You Get Eggroll

Cast of characters

• Abby McClure (Doris Day, Billy Rose’s Jumbo). Abby is a widow, with three young boys who’s running the family’s lumber business. “Hectic” is a good way to describe her life. Until her sister Maxine plays matchmaker …
• Maxine Scott (Pat Caroll, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid). Abby’s matchmaking sister, friend, and helper.
• Jake Iverson (Brian Keith, The Parent Trap, Family Affair). The widower that Maxine tries to set Abby up with. But he tells a lie to get out of the party earlier, and runs into Abby at a supermarket later. They begin an awkward romance, fall in love, and elope. And her kids are surprised by their new father the next morning when they barge into Abby’s bedroom … where the newlyweds are in bed together.
• Molly (Alice Ghostley, To Kill a Mockingbird, Bewitched). Abby’s maid, friend, and confidante.
• Cleo (Elaine Devry, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, Herbie Rides Again). Jake’s recently-divorced neighbor, who clearly has designs on him. Even after he’s married. A comedy character.
• Jo Jo (Jamie Farr, M*A*S*H, The Red Skelton Show). One of the hippies who “helps” at the zany conclusion – very funny!
• Zip (William Christopher, M*A*S*H). Another helping hippy, also funny and zany.
• Herbie Fleck (George Carlin). A short comedy appearance as the man running the drive-in where Abbie and Jake date.
• Truck Driver (Vic Tayback, Alice, All Dogs Go to Heaven). In the zany conclusion, the aggravated chicken truck driver 🙂 who gets angry at Abby, punches, Jake, and gets them all sent to the police station.
• Desk Sergeant (Allan Melvin, The Phil Silvers Show, All in the Family). The poor police officer who has to try and straighten out the mess at the zany ending.

After her long and wholesome run as America’s Sweetheart, Doris Day quit movies with this well-scrubbed picture. With Six You Get Eggroll–oof, what a title–caught the wave of blended-family comedies, coming just after Yours, Mine and Ours and just before TV’s The Brady Bunch. Doris has three sons, and new beau Brian Keith has an 18-year-old daughter (the still-baby-faced Barbara Hershey). It’s family-friendly sitcom stuff, with both Day and Keith doing their comfortable, patented thing; when the two of them are onscreen together it’s like watching a couple of old sweaters mate.

This one is straight formula for fans only, although connoisseurs of camp will enjoy the whiff of Aquarius in the otherwise square proceedings (it was 1968, after all) when Doris goes to a nightclub where the Grass Roots are playing. There’s also a hippie gang (featuring Jamie Farr and William Christopher, before M*A*S*H) with ponchos and love beads. The times they were a-changin’, and kudos to Day for bowing out gracefully. –Robert Horton