Navy widow Helen North Beardsley (Lucille Ball) is moving her eight kids to San Francisco. Naval officer Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) is returning home to an unhappy family of ten kids who hate him for failing to care for their late mother. He is so overwhelmed that his two youngest have to go live with his brother's family. He needs help after various short term housekeepers keep leaving.
The date is the first bit of funny comedy. The drunken first meeting with the kids could have been funnier but somehow it's not. Lucy knows how to drunk comedy but it's not funny. I don't buy that she couldn't taste the heightened alcohol in her drink. I don't like her drunken lines. It should be funnier. I do like the six months line to button the scene. That is the way this goes. It's mildly amusing at times and then it's not and then it is. More could be done to individualize a few of the kids. A couple of kids need to be leading characters. They become a mob which is exactly the joke and again it's only funny intermittently. It's fine for a family friendly film.
The date is the first bit of funny comedy. The drunken first meeting with the kids could have been funnier but somehow it's not. Lucy knows how to drunk comedy but it's not funny. I don't buy that she couldn't taste the heightened alcohol in her drink. I don't like her drunken lines. It should be funnier. I do like the six months line to button the scene. That is the way this goes. It's mildly amusing at times and then it's not and then it is. More could be done to individualize a few of the kids. A couple of kids need to be leading characters. They become a mob which is exactly the joke and again it's only funny intermittently. It's fine for a family friendly film.