With Six You Get Eggroll

Plot

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: "With six you get eggroll!"

Film locations

Most of the film's exterior locations were within a five-mile radius of each other:

Ye Olde Drive Inn

The location used for Herbie Fleck's "Ye Olde Drive Inn" was a drive-in on Ventura Place, near CBS Studio Center around the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The site is now a sporting goods store.

School Scenes

School scenes were filmed at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Village (at the time Van Nuys), California.

Toluca Lake

Both of the houses seen in the film are within a block of each other in the suburb of Toluca Lake, which straddles the borders of Los Angeles and Burbank in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood that Abby drives the camper truck through is the northern part of Toluca Lake, specifically Kling Street between Arcola Avenue and Cahuenga Avenue.

McClure house

The exterior shots for Abby McClure's late-1930s Tudor Revival home were filmed at 4248 Clybourn Avenue; the same house number is also used in the film. The interiors are soundstage sets that bear no resemblance to the house's actual interior. A studio replica of the street-facing façade was also used for some night shots—discernible by the differences in the tree in the front yard—specifically for the scene with rain. A still photograph of the house across the street (4245 Clybourn Avenue) can be seen earlier in the same sequence where Jake arrives on the porch of the McClure house. The homes to the right have all had major remodelings, as well as the McClure house, which is almost unrecognizable as the same house today. However, the fire hydrant at the sidewalk, the covered driveway and the front yard tree all remain as of October 2013.

Iverson house

The exterior shots for Jake Iverson's 1929 Mission Revival home were shot at 10011 Tikita Place. All of the exterior night shots were filmed at this location. The interiors—as well as the backyard—are also soundstage sets that bear no resemblance to the house's actual interior and backyard. The house to the left of the Iverson house has undergone major remodeling, whereas the Iverson house still looked very similar to its appearance in this film until about 2014. As of September 2015, the Iverson house was completely demolished and replaced with a faux-traditional home.

Iverson-McClure house

The film's final punchline—a large two-story early-1950s Colonial house shown briefly at the end with a "Sold" sign on it and a front pathway flanked by the McClures' sheepdog and the Iversons' poodle—is also in Toluca Lake, at 10463 Kling Street.

Police chase scene

The late 1930s two-story Colonial house with the circle driveway that the police chase drives through is at 10501 Kling Street (to the immediate left of the above-mentioned Iverson-McClure house at 10463 Kling.)

Music

The film's score was composed and conducted by CBS Television and Columbia Records staff arranger/composer Robert Mersey, who is perhaps best known for his jazz compositions "Whisky Sour", "Rock n Roll Bop" and especially the brassy instrumental "Goldfinger" (not to be confused with the 1964 John Barry song), which showed up several times on The Ren & Stimpy Show.

While Day provided a vocal performance either onscreen, in voice-over or over the credits in all of her movies since 1958's The Tunnel of Love, this is one of only three films not to feature a vocal by Day (the others being 1967's The Ballad of Josie and 1968's Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?). A male chorus is heard singing an easy-listening piece called “You Make Me Think About You” in one sequence, but no vocals are heard by Day. A 45RPM single featuring a vocal by Johnny Mathis and arranged and conducted by Robert Mersey was released by Columbia Records. The single peaked at 35 on Billboard's Easy Listening Chart.

Psychedelic folk band The Grass Roots (in this case, Rob Grill, Warren Entner, Rick Coonce and Creed Bratton) make a cameo appearance as the band playing at the Pandora's Box–style coffee house discothèque. The song they are shown performing is "Feelings," written by Coonce, Entner, and The 13th Floor bandmember Kenny Fukomoto.

Box office

After its release, the film went on to gross $10,095,200 at the box office according to Variety and the box office website The Numbers, making it one of the top ten moneymaking films of Day's 39-film career.

Variety said it earned $4.5 million in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada.

Critical

Upon its theatrical release, The New York Times' Vincent Canby wrote: "The latest chapter in the continuing adventures of the Widow Day… was produced by Cinema Center Films, a subsidiary of the Columbia Broadcasting System… I kept wondering how the characters played by Miss Day lose their husbands. Cancer? Suicide? Auto accident? There's never any hint. There are, however, some hints of the very real comic talent that has, over the years, become hermetically sealed inside a lacquered personality."

DVD

The film was released by Paramount Home Video on May 3, 2005 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.