Ma and Pa Kettle

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF MA AND PA KETTLE (originally titled simply MA AND PA KETTLE during original release, apparently "Further" was a reissue title or for television) launches the popular movie series starring the scene-stealing characters from the 1947 Claudette Colbert/Fred MacMurray blockbuster THE EGG AND I, Ma and Pa Kettle (Colbert and MacMurray's characters are never mentioned in any of the MPK films). Often mistakenly thought to be set in the rural South, the Kettle movies are actually if discreetly set in rural Washington state(note the local paper shown is from Seattle) so technically the Kettles are not hillbillies as is usually presumed (the later film THE KETTLES OF THE OZARKS to the contrary, in which their location was indeed shifted to the South.)

The local community is in an uproar over the state of the dilapidated Kettle home and vote to condemn it and force the Kettles to move (poetic license as the Kettles clearly live outside of city limits in a secluded area and a dump like theirs would hardly have been an uncommon site in a rural community in the 1940's.) Ready for a fight, Ma arms her brood with slingshots and peashooters and she herself totes a more menacing shotgun but the matter is instantly settled when Pa turns out to have won grand prize in a slogan contest for a tobacco company, a fully furnished modern home (remarkably one which just so happens to have been built in their own county and one close enough to hear dynamite explosions at the Kettle fortress). The community now raises the Kettles to local heroes, inciting the wrath of local shrew Birdie Hicks (played by the wonderful Esther Dale) who is out to prove Pa didn't concoct the slogan himself.

Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as sensational as the Kettles. Ms. Main, on the eve of 60, plays mom to a brood of school-aged kids but her performance is so perfect it seems a minor quibble. Kilbride manages to make a lazy, self-centered character appealing, no small feat either. Dashing young Richard Long as the oldest son is extremely appealing as the lone sensitive, intelligent Kettle and the cast is dotted with many delightful character actors in support, including several who were also in THE EGG AND I, notably Ms. Dale as mean old bat Birdie Hicks and the delightfully impish Ida Moore as Emily. I particularly enjoyed elderly character actress Isabel O'Madigan as Birdie's parrot of a mother. Ms. O'Madigan was a supporting player in films of the 1910's, retiring late in the decade only to return as a bit player in the late 1940's. The only talkies she was billed in were her two stints as Mrs. Hicks and this was her final film, passing away in early 1951 at age 79.

"The modern home" segment has some good sight gags that still hold up today and it's interesting how "modern" or even space-age this home seems to 21st century audiences, including a wide-screen television decades before they were actually produced on the general market. Also a fun bit of trivia is seeing the Kettles interviewed by a fictional TV network "ABC Television" several years before there actually was such a network.

While I am sure most people watch the Ma & Pa Kettle films to laugh at the exploits of the Kettle clan, I have a very different reaction. When I watch Ma keeping house and fussin' about, it seems like for once I am seeing my own mother on film! The filthy and dilapidated house sure reminds me of home! These characters were first introduced in the Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert film "The Egg & I". These supporting characters were so popular that it resulted in an Oscar nomination for Marjorie Main and a series of films as well as a TV series!

The film starts with the town council discussing whether or not to condemn the Kettle place. After all, Pa Kettle NEVER does a bit of work and the home has been falling apart all around the Kettles for years. However, before they can take action, the council learns that Pa just won a contest--and a new home is the prize! They hope that maybe the entire annoying brood might just be moving! Their oldest son (Richard Long) looks and acts absolutely nothing like the rest of the family--he's sort of like Marilyn in "The Munsters"!

On the way back home from completing college, he meets a reporter on the train and he lies to her about his fancy rich family. Little does he know that she'll be interviewing his family because of the contest win--and she'll soon see what sort of genteel childhood he really had! Naturally, they soon fall in love.

As for the new house, it's as ultra-modern as you can get in 1949--and some of the stuff even looks pretty space-age today. Unfortunately, the place baffles the Kettles, as there are so many gadgets and do-dads that it's awfully confusing. The juxtaposition of the back-woods Kettles with this streamlined home is obviously supposed to be as extreme as possible and it leads to some funny results--though I would agree with the other reviewer who said the humor is pretty gentle and not laugh-inducing. And, when it comes to this modern home, it reminds me strongly of the Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd cartoon "Design for Leaving".

All in all, this is an entertaining and slight film. While the film certainly does not fall in the 'must see' category, it is fun and a pleasant little movie that makes you look forward to the next in the series.

By the way, the odd old lady on the train who sits there talking with her dead husband is pretty ironic. I read a while back that Ms. Main herself was famous for talking on the set to her dead husband! In some cases, they'd have to re-shoot scenes because she'd just start having conversations with him out of the blue! Apparently she was a very, very eccentric lady!! Also of interest (and intense speculation) was her relationship with fellow actress Spring Byington.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a remake of this series! When I was growing up I remember watching this show with my parents! They have passed away since! But I think seeing a remake of this would bring back happy memories of my Mom & Dad! It was a really good show about reality of having such a big family & struggling to tend to them! My parents grew up with a large family! So they could relate!! Now with all the passings it's not like that anymore 😢! But making the best of what you could do as a parent! Ma & Pa Kettle did exactly that!! My favorite part where 1 of the kids walks up & starts talking to Ma & she asked Who Are You? 😂 The kid saids I'm your child! Having such a big family trying to remember each child & their Names is so true of forgetting lol!! I think this is a great show for the Modern Day Family! Something to think of when a parents struggles to make ends meet!!

Ma and Pa Kettle, much like Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, pump out pretty much the same jokes in this film as all there others, and that's ok.

They are so charming.

I don't think too many of the current generation will stumble across them, which is a shame :)

The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle almost seamlessly picks up where The Egg and I left off. For the first solo adventure of the Kettles a new writing team and director is introduced. Leonard Goldstein, associate producer of The Egg and I, was producer of The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle. With many of the characters played by the same actors and actresses the focus from the MacDonalds to the Kettles works very well. There is a reference to Ma beating Birdie Hicks for first prize at the fair for her quilt, an import scene in The Egg and I. The prize money from the quilt contest was to be used to send Tom Kettle to college. In this movie Tom is returning home as a college graduate.

There are two plots intertwined in this movie. One is the comedy of the simple mountain family moving into a state of the art modern house. The other is a light morality play on how environment affects children as they grow up.

Pa Kettle (Percy Kilbride) wanted a free tobacco pouch for entering a contest, and ended up winning a house. His disappointment at not getting the free tobacco pouch is played for laughs quite a bit. When Pa plays with dynamite he is totally oblivious to the explosion. Kilbride never flinched in the scene as the debris from the explosion fell around him. He played the part to perfection. In his autobiography, Jack Benny mentioned how impressed he was with Percy Kilbride's deadpan delivery. Kilbride took that comedic device to a high level of perfection.

Ma (Marjorie Main) and Pa move into the new house with modern conveniences that confuse Ma and Pa almost as much as they help them. Ma adapts far more quickly than Pa. Included with the modern conveniences is a television, a very new household item in 1949. Moving walls, hidden beds, and plumbing fixtures are used as comic props, but the attention is on Ma and Pa, never the props themselves.

Tom Kettle (Richard Long) meets Kim Parker (Meg Randall), a magazine writer who feels that hygiene and environment are essential for children to realize success as adults. Tom is a bright, self-made man who contradicts the theory that success can only come from a pristine environment. This subject is briefly discussed in a couple of scenes, but left to subside. It was also the only serious discussion in this otherwise whimsical movie.

Seeing the Kettles moving out of their run-down old house to move to a new house would almost be a disaster if it were not for the characters staying true to themselves. Ma was the practical one, just as she had been in the The Egg and I. Pa was the fish out of water that provided the best comedy. He never felt at home in the new house, but the actual location of a comfortable bed would never be of concern to him.