Placide et Zoé

This was the very first Ma and Pa Kettle film and it is probably the second ranked film in the series in terms of laughs (just behind Ma and Pa's trip to Hawaii). This is film definitely has all the elements that made the series great, boisterous Ma, lazy Pa and their wild brood of 15 (or is it 16?). Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride were perfectly cast in this film and made for a classic pairing that and they would become two of the most enduring characters in all of filmdom. The chemistry between the two made you actually think they were married and it made for a great time and made the whole series great.

Also, I often wonder if Paul Henning actually got his ideas for the "Beverly Hillbillies" from this film and not from the hillbillies he saw on his vacations.

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 :)

There is a need for this kind of entertainment in our modern world. You can watch "Ma and Pa" with adults, with your family (kids any age or just by yourself like me. They are gentle, but gentle is so refreshing in a society of kids killing kids, a horrible war, inappropriate prime time television and poverty. We don't even get a hint of where all of those children came from! Give me modern plumbing and I'll gladly become a Kettle. Humor does NOT require offensive language. It is hard to follow conversations in shows where every other word is bleeped. Relax, take your shoes off, and climb in your recliner with a good old-fashioned glass of lemonade, and just breathe easy watching Ma sweeping the chickens off the table at lunch time! Pj

After cracking up "The Egg and I" (1947), scene-stealers Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride went on a roll for Universal International. Beginning in their own movie series, "Ma and Pa Kettle" are about to be thrown out of their untidy abode. The family is saved when Mr. Kilbride wins a tobacco company contest, with the slogan "For smokin' or chewin' King Henry's most fittin', it smells awful good and it's dandy for spittin!" The Kettles move into their grand prize, a "prefabricated model house of the future." The ABC (good name for a TV station) television cameras document their amusing arrival.

Returning from college, handsome Richard Long (as Tom) re-joins his backwoodsy family. Along the way, he finds love with pretty Meg Randall (as Kim Parker), who is writing a series of magazine articles on the Kettles and their fifteen frightening "childrun". The plot thickens when family nemesis Esther Dale (as Birdie) discovers Kilbride may have plagiarized his winning slogan. Thanks to its appealing old cast, the film is a winner, too. Lovely old Ida Moore (as Emily) and "Albert" make a point with charm (on the train); and, the entire effort works as a satire on the effects of modernization on society.

******* Ma and Pa Kettle (4/1/49) Charles Lamont ~ Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, Meg Randall

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.