This is the review I kept meaning to write, only couldn't after doing some research, and subsequently I've struggled doing any other review as I got it in my head that this should be written and finished first. Only then could I move on.
"Yours, Mine and Ours," from 1968, is innocent enough. The movie stars Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. A family film with all the right motifs. Two families joining into one, and all the problems this entails. But this wasn't just any family, these were two large families. Helen North with her eight children and Frank Beardsley with his ten. Two more came later to make up 20 children. There are antics between the children. Situations between Helen and Frank as they managed dating, work (Helen as a nurse and Frank in the Navy), and family raising.
I enjoyed watching Lucille Ball play a character quite different than her "I Love Lucy" persona. There's still punch lines, but overall more realistic and serious at times.
While the movie progressed I thought that if this story was based on a real family, it would be courted by the likes of TLC, quickly made into reality television.
After some research it's a good thing reality television didn't exist in the 1960's.
Helen North Beardsley released a book called "Who Gets the Drumstick?" though the book stays quaint and loving. I haven't read it, but it appears to resemble what's in the movie. The film's Wikipedia page lists differences between book and movie.
The controversy in my head began after I read the article "A Hollywood tale of happiness rocketed a Carmel family to fame. But one son says reality was more of a horror story." The interview is with Tom North, the 11th child, and he spells out a different scene. He describes abuse and heartache. Violence by Frank Beardsley, Helen marrying him to save his children. It's a very different story, one that is hard to read. The Beardsley children deny it, siding with their father.
It's hard to know what to believe. Movie's tend to not stick with facts, glorifying and exaggerating for storytelling sake. Was Helen's sweet biography the true story? Tom North's interview? Or the Beardsley children protecting the memory of their father?
All that aside, "Yours, Mine and Ours" is a sweet, inspiration movie. I'm glad to have not known the background story before seeing it, so now I fear I may have ruined it for others. Only you can decide what you believe.
Sarah
