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This is one of the best movies ever made. Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball out do themsleves in this movie.
It begins with navy officer Frank Beardsley coming back from the sea and Helen North moving to San Francisco to start a new life for
her and her 8 children. Frank and Helen shared one major commonality: They were both widowed/widowered. Frank was a now a single
father to 10 children and Helen a single mother to 8 children. Helen ended up working as a nurse at the same base where Frank was
stationed. They ran into each other at the commissary and when Frank rounded a corner of the street where Helen was trying to cross.
Even though Frank had hired nanny after nanny, none worked out. On the last nanny to work for him, it turned out that she had walked
in on one of Frank's daughters, Louise (portrayed by Suzanne Cupito), while she was in the bath tub and Louise was very upset. Frank was so concerned that he rushed her
to the base doctor where she fell under Helen's care and they met up once again. That very night, Frank called Helen to thank her for
helping him with his daughter--basically using any excuse he could to call her and ask her out.
Well they went on one date that didn't seem to go well, so they just decided to be friends. Well that is until Frank's ornery friend
and colleague, Derrell (portrayed by Van Johnson), got involved. He set them both up on a date with different people, but at the same Japanese restaurant. He set
them up with people he knew they wouldn't like and so that1 they would purposely run into each other. Helen's date was a short man who was
an OB/GYN doctor to which Helen said Derrell had a malicious sense of humor. :D LOL. Frank's date on the other hand had only one thing
on her mind.
Well it didn't take Helen long to scare her date off. He said he was a lonely man and she said she wasn't lonely at all because she had 8
children. He thought she was joking until she showed him their pictures. So he politely excused himself and took off. As soon as Helen
walked out front, Frank and his date were getting ready to leave and Frank told her he'd give her a ride home, much to the dismay of his
date. All Frank and Helen did on the way was talk about their kids, with Frank's date in the middle looking like she's about to barf.
It was there they decided they didn't just want to be friends. They wanted to date and get to know each other better.
They went out on date after date and couldn't have been happier. So a while later, Frank had Helen over for dinner and his kids were less
than thrilled, but they had no choice but to go along with it. Not long after arriving home with Helen, Frank asked his boys to get them
some drinks. Frank wanted his usual and Helen wanted a screwdriver, which is orange juice with a shot of vodka. Well Frank's sons played
a very mean joke on her. They put the orange juice and vodka in, but they also poured in lots of scotch and gin as well. Needless to say
Helen got very drunk. She laughed unconrollably and spilled milk and mashed potatoes in the little girl's lap (Frank's daughter Veronica)
that was sitting next to her. While one her sisters took her to clean her up, Frank had Louise help Helen to the bathroom to get composed.
Frank had finally figured what was wrong and he was mad. He made his sons apologize and Helen was willing to back off yet again because his
kids didn't seem to like her, but Frank wouldn't have it. And right there he proposed marriage in front of everyone.
Much to the dismay of the children on both sides, Frank and Helen married. Things were rough in the beginning. The kids on both sides still
didn't take to the marriage and their new family. But after a while, everyone started to tone down and started getting used to being one big
family. Helen did get a surprise the Christmas after she and Frank married. The doctor called her on Christmas morning to tell her she was
pregnant. She didn't tell Frank because there was as special sea project Frank wanted to go on and be a part of and she knew he wouldn't go
if he knew she was pregnant. He ended up being gone longer than expected. But while he was at sea, in one of his letters, he was told about
Helen's pregnancy and he rushed and got on the mail plane and flew home.
By the time the baby was born (they had a son), everyone had grown to love each other like a real family and both Frank and Helen adopted each
other's children as their legal children.
Amidst all the excitement and hollaballoo at the Beardsley household was love joy, and yes a lot of laughter.
© 2008 by April. Layout was made by April. Coding credit goes to Nikie.
