Old Movies With Kids: Yours, Mine, and Ours - A.K.A. The Girl Who Ate Too Much

This week I subjected my children to one of my childhood favorites, Yours, Mine and Ours. I haven't watched this movie since I was a kid so I was pretty excited to watch it with them.

You know how sometimes you watch a movie that you haven't seen since you were a kid, and you realize there were a bunch of sex jokes that went over your head? Yeah, that happened. I suppose I can't call them sex jokes--maybe just innuendo. Very mild innuendo, but innuendo nonetheless. Mostly delivered by Van Johnson's character who's constantly trying to convince his widower buddy Frank (Henry Fonda) that he needs some lovin'. His hard work and determination pay off when Frank meets Helen (Lucille Ball) and they quickly get married and merge their two very large families.

The reason I liked this movie as a kid was primarily because of my love for Lucy who is, of course, delightful and funny while still delivering some touching moments with her kids and husband. The kids got a kick out of her slapstick moments--drunk Lucy never disappoints!

One of the unexpectedly best parts of this movie was my spirit character, Susan Beardsley, who makes sure to eat at every opportunity. I truly appreciate how vigilant they were with continuing this gag throughout the movie. This girl does not stop eating--even the rice she was supposed to be throwing at her father's wedding isn't safe from her insatiable appetite. She's amazing.

From the Kids

4 out of 5 stars - 10 year old girl

4.5 out of 5 stars - 5 year old girl (docked a half star because she took a break to play Monopoly Jr. with her brother and missed some parts of the movie.)

2.5 out of 5 stars - 8 year old boy

Kids' favorites moments:

When Lucy got drunk. I had to do a bit of explaining about alcohol and its effects and how much the kids were putting into her drink, but once it got going the kids all thought it was very funny.

When they got married.

The 10 year old like the drama of the daughter and her boyfriend fighting in the living room at the end. I don't know what this means for her teenage years.

The girls liked when they had the baby at the end and suggested that we have another baby. (NO)

Classic Movie History Lesson: How the West Was Won

I've been isolating in the house due to a bout with COVID and everyone else took all the streaming devices so I'm stuck watching broadcast television. Luckily, my cheap little antenna picks up the Movies! network where they're constantly showing good, but not too good old movies. Today I watched a film I hadn't seen before: How the West Was Won.

This isn't the kind of movie I would typically watch. I like musicals and comedies and dreamy leading men. But I was drawn in by the cast featuring Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Gregory Peck and many others. It's another one in that special genre where they packed in as many stars as humanly possible, leading to a very long movie in an effort to give everyone an appropriate amount of screen time.

It follows a family, and maybe some random other unrelated people, through the ups and downs of life in the west throughout the generations--finding husbands, the civil war, building railroads, finding husbands, fighting Indians, digging for gold, finding more husbands--all of the drama I'm sure actually came with life in the wild west.

Thelma Ritter appears for a hot second and, as one would expect, steals the show. Her and Debbie Reynold's usual spunky self make for a lot of fun as they travel west and look for husbands and money. I'm still a little upset that Debbie Reynolds did not choose to marry Robert Preston. He was clearly the more stable choice over gambling Gregory Peck!

As you can see, the quasi-romance provided the most entertainment for me. To be honest, I kind of stopped paying attention to the parts with wars and fighting Indians and trains and fighting on trains which made up the last half of the movie.

All in all if you like westerns, lots of random movie stars, and movies that attempt to teach you some history, this is a great option!

Old Movies With Kids: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

A couple weeks ago my husband bought this Willy Wonka game that we've really been enjoying. I highly recommend it especially if you have kids. It's been a great game that we can all enjoy together. All that to say, my kids have been asking to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I always kind of hated this movie. I don't remember the first time I saw it, but I think I was maybe jr. high age and I was not impressed. I always found it a bit disturbing and mostly avoided it.

So I was curious to see how I felt watching it now as an adult with my own kids. Basically, my feelings haven't changed. I don't like this movie. Everything is kind of depressing, the kids are so annoying, and Wonka is mentally unstable. His purple coat is cool, though.

I feel like there's supposed to be some great moral to the story but there are so many strange twists and turns that it gets lost. I will say, I forgot about the whole thing with the everlasting gobstopper and Charlie deciding not to steal it. I guess that was a good message. But it's just lost for me in all the weirdness. Trust me, I love a weird movie. But this one is just not doing it for me.

The hardest thing for me to look past is the wild changes in Wonka's personality. One minute he's nice, one minute he's a jerk, the next minute he's just plain crazy, then back to nice again, then he's depressed. It's just all over the place. Apparently there's a fan theory going around that he murdered all the children except Charlie and I totally buy it. He's definitely got serial killer vibes.

Also Grandpa Joe's been spending 20 years bed-ridden, wasting money on tobacco, making his daughter take care of him but then he's suddenly good to go walk around a chocolate factory for a day?? No.

The good news is my kids generally enjoyed it, but hopefully we can just play the game and never watch the movie again.

From the Kids

"Good" 3.5 stars out of 5 - 8 year old boy

4.5 stars out of 5. Only docked the .5 star because the oompa loompas looked too fake - 10 year old girl

20 stars out of 5 - 5 year old girl

Kids favorite moments:

When everything in his office was cut in half. (All three of the kids mentioned this. It really left an impression. I hope they don't start cutting all our stuff in half.)

Looking down on the town from the Wonkavator.

When Veronica fell into the egg chute and the dad followed her. 

When Charlie found the golden ticket

The songs (This is ridiculous. The songs are horrible.)

When Willy Wonka was drinking out of the flower cup and then took a bite.

Graceland

In honor of the new trailer for this upcoming Elvis movie, I thought I'd share some photos from my trip to Graceland several years ago. It was so delightful and I'm hoping to go back! My kids loved Elvis and it was so much fun to bring them there.

I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. It was really interesting to learn about his life and some of the more personal things about him. I felt like I got to know him and gained a new appreciation for his talent and the ups and downs he went through.

Is it sad to end it all at his grave site? YES! But it's so special that it's all been preserved and well taken care of for so many of us to enjoy. 

 

The self-guided tour around the house was really informative and brought many interesting insights into Elvis's life there.

 

 

The jungle room. Elvis definitely had his own sense of style!

One of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing his airplane which was pretty fabulous. I thought this was a pretty nice bathroom for an airplane.

If you ever get a chance to go, I definitely recommend it. As for this movie, I usually steer clear of these kinds of things because they end up kind of depressing. Like the Judy movie I still haven't managed to watch. But Tom Hanks is in it which is usually a positive so I just might have to check it out!

The Quiet Man on the Big Screen

Anytime an old movie is shown on the big screen I'm pretty excited. I mean, it's great that I live in a time where I can stream pretty much anything I want, but it's also a bummer that I missed out on seeing so many great movies in the theater.

So I was pretty excited to find out they'll be showing The Quiet Man in theaters for St. Patrick's Day! I've written about The Quiet Man before and what a joy it is to watch the commentary version with Maureen O'Hara. She's one of my favorites and this movie is charming and delightful. I can't wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a trip to the theater!

Side note: From what I can tell, the newer blu-ray versions of The Quiet Man don't have the wonderful commentary with Maureen O'Hara which is a shame. I have this version which is quite old now but the commentary is a treasure if you're a fan of Maureen O'Hara! You can always check out my summary. It's basically all you need to know.

Old Movies with Kids: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

To continue my kids' education in old movies, over the weekend we watched It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I remember really liking this movie as a kid, but I hadn't seen it since then so I was excited to revisit it with my own kids.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as great as I remember. Some parts were a bit too slow and dragged on too long, but there was plenty of silliness and I think the kids enjoyed it.

The premise of the movie is pretty simple--a man gets into a serious car accident and as he's dying, he reveals to a group of strangers who came to his rescue that he buried $350k under a big W. What follows is 2-and-a-half hours of mishaps involving various modes of transportation and slightly mentally unstable people in often physically impossible situations as they all race to find the mysterious big W.

The number of cars running into things in this movie rivals any modern action movie.

This movie is part of a fad in the '60's and '70's that involved making movies featuring slightly washed-up A-list and B-list actors who must each require a certain amount of screen time because all of these movies are super long and I can't imagine any other reason that they need to be so long. This is a long movie, especially since it's basically the same gag over and over.

Surprisingly, my kids didn't complain once. They seemed to like it and got a kick out of some of the slapstick.

As a side note, if you don't want to sit through the whole movie, this Simpsons episode basically accomplishes the same effect in about 2 minutes.

From the Kids

"Good. Weird. Funny." - 10 year old girl

"Good" - 5 year old girl

"I hated everything, but I kinda liked it." - 8 year old boy

Kid's favorite moments:

When Jimmy Durante literally kicked the bucket. They were all very happy to learn this new phrase and have continued to laugh about it.

When everyone's freaking out when they landed the airplane at the airport.

The people trapped in the basement.

The mother in law.

When they all failed to notice the W.

Coming Soon: Cheaper By the Dozen Trifecta

Disney just released the trailer for their new remake of Cheaper By the Dozen, so I went to go look up the original version and to my horror, Google seems to think the 2003 version is the original. There's basically no mention of the ACTUAL original from 1950 starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy!

Obviously, this is an outrage. But either way, this gives me another great old movie to add to my list of films to watch with the kids. And even better, it gives us the opportunity for another trifecta viewing. Can't wait!

The Perfect Book to Learn from The Past

This is a bit of a shameless plug, but it fills well with the spirit of this blog. My mom and I put together this book as a fun way to connect with different generations talk about how things have changed over the decades. If you're older, fill it out yourself and share with the young people in your life. If you're younger, go through it with a grandparent or other family and friends to learn about them.

I always loved hearing about my grandma's life--her favorite old movies especially!--and I wish I had done something like this with her. She loved reminiscing with her grandkids and it would be wonderful to have all those conversations written down!

You can buy it on Amazon and have fun hearing stories and connecting with the past!