With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

'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. Seeing it, with it being notable for being her swansong film, it is pleasant enough but one can see the reviews here are so mixed.Day certainly made much better films, 'Calamity Jane' and 'Pillow Talk' especially. She also made far worse, some have often cited later efforts for understandable reasons (her best decade easily was the 50s) as among her worst, to me a few of her early films like 'Lucky Me' and 'Starlift' are also strong contenders. 'With Six You Get Eggroll' is somewhat of a middling film for her.There are numerous strengths with 'With Six You Get Eggroll'. The music has quirky energy and is suitably understated when needed. Some of the dialogue is witty and sophisticated and there are some amusing, if never exactly hilarious, moments. 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. Howard Morris directs competently. Most of the cast make the film and their material work. Day comes over as very natural and at ease, she has fun and radiates charm. Keith has lovely chemistry with her and is a likable leading man with a gift for gentle comic timing. 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. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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 ****

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. As was always the case, she was surrounded by the best supporting people available. Pat Carroll, as her sister was a lot of fun as was Alice Ghostley, her harried maid. There were many familiar faces darting in and out. People like Jaime Farr, Vic Taback, Jackie Joseph and George Carlin.Brian Keith was a "comfortable", but gruff leading man for Doris. They had many nice scenes together, although he did not measure up to the usual caliber star with whom Miss Day was usually paired.As usual, Doris Day worked well with children. She was one of the few major stars that could. 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. The picture is more enjoyable than the Henry Fonda/Lucille Ball film with approximately the same theme. Their's was called "Yours, Mine and Ours", also in 1968.