The Kettles in the Ozarks

I recently watched The Kettles In The Ozarks with my family and we had a wonderful time! This was the ninth movie in the Kettle series and I went in to it wondering how they were going to come up with anything novel in the ninth film of the series. Fortunately there are indeed some funny moments in this one and it's pretty darn good for a part nine. It certainly made us smile. The Kettles in the Ozarks is really an enjoyable little movie with plenty of cute, charming, and funny moments. I laughed out loud quite a few times. Pa's brother is a hoot and the inebriated animals made me almost bust a gut! No it's not an artistic masterpiece, but it is darn fun!

Universal Studios chose to make two Ma and Pa Kettle films even after Pa (Percy Kilbride) retired and refused to make any more. This is a testament both to the popularity of this genial series as well as an indicator of just how stupid some studio execs can be!! Frankly, after I watched the previous Kettle film, "Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki", I think Kilbride was smart to get out. The series had obviously jumped the shark and was trying really strange plots that indicated it had seen better days.

Considering there is no Pa, this film is about as good as you can expect. Instead of Pa, Ma and the kids go to the Ozarks to spent time with Pa's brother, Sedge. Now if you think about it, however, why wouldn't Pa go with the kids to see his brother and leave Ma at home to watch the farm?

When Ma and her brood arrive, they find a heap of problems. First, Sedge is about ready to lose the farm. After all, he's super-lazy just like Pa. Second, when he comes up with a scheme to make money, it blows up in his face because the folks paying him for his corn crop and to use his barn want to do this because they are gangsters making moonshine! Third, after dating for 20 years, Sedge's girlfriend is about ready to walk! Can Ma held lazy old Sedge to straighten out all these messes?

Sedge and his lady friend were fine characters and would have been welcome IF they would have been introduced in addition to keeping Pa. But again and again, I was annoyed to hear characters say "Wow, Sedge....you're just like Pa"...as if they were trying to convince the audience that he was an adequate replacement. Additionally, the problem with the crooks and how it got worked out with taffy was a bit dopey. Still, harmless and entertaining.

After Percy Kilbride retired Universal Pictures tried to keep the Ma and Pa Kettle series going with just Marjorie Main. Here she teamed up with Arthur Hunnicutt, another actor known for playing rustics. Hunnicutt plays Uncle Sedge who is Kilbride's brother as Ma takes the kids to help out Hunnicutt in The Kettles In The Ozarks.

Hunnicutt has certainly got the Kettle work ethic down completely. He even has a couple of Indians to help on the farm just like Percy does. And he also does supervision from a hammock as Percy does. What he hasn't is a wife and 15 kids. But he does have Una Merkel who has an engagement to him longer than Adelaide had with Nathan Detroit.

Ted DeCorsia and Sid Tomack and associates want to rent Hunnicutt's barn and he's not above some easy money. Kind of a preposterous plot takes shape here. These are city slicker gangsters who want to make moonshine so they go to the Ozarks to do it. As they're horning in on the local illegal trade it gets a bit sticky for them and I do mean literally.

The film is more silly than funny at times though it has some good laughs. Those inebriated animals who get into the mash are a hoot. Hunnicutt and Main work well together, but the Kettle public just would not accept a substitute for Percy Kilbride.

Still Kettle fans will like it now.

"Ozarks" opens with the Kettle family making a scene in the train station... and the slapstick comedy and antics continue when they finally get on the train. The Kettles, minus Pa, are on their way to visit Pa's brother in the Ozarks. This was the second-to-last episode in the collection. Keep an eye out for big stars Richard Deacon (was Mel Cooley on D.V.Dyke Show) as Big Trout, the Indian, and Una Merkel, (old time movie star) is Bedelia Baines. A twelve year old Bonnie Franklin (the Mom on One Day at a Time) is even in here as Betty ! About halfway through, we are introduced to the "bad guys", who are planning some sort of caper. Things move a little more slowly in this adventure... it was getting a little tired by this time. Ma Kettle yells "Come and Get it !" every few minutes, scaring the daylights out of everyone around. It's a pleasant mix of pratfalls and jokes. Fun running gag of a boot-wearing goose. Also a funny scene where all the farm animals get drunk...they probably wouldn't be allowed to make that scene today. This was the first one without Pa (Percy Kilbride), but Ma reads letters from him a couple times. Directed by Charles Lamont, who had directed about half of the "Kettle " films. He also worked with the Three Stooges, as well as Abbott and Costello, so he certainly worked with the Pros!

THE KETTLES IN THE OZARKS was the penultimate film in the Ma and Pa Kettle series, the first one without Percy Kilbride, who had retired, and the only one without the Pa Kettle character. Ma and fourteen of her children take the train down to Arkansas to help Pa's brother Arthur Hunnicutt whose farm is in danger of foreclosing. The brood arrives shortly after brother has been fooled into letting Northern gangsters rent his unused barn where they set up a moonshine unit and plan to take over the local bootlegging racket. Ma meets brother's longtime finance Una Merkel who is still waiting after twenty years to walk down the aisle and decides to help make Una's dream a reality.

Despite being very late in the series this is an often quite funny entry even without Kilbride's presence. Arthur Hunnicutt, a well-known character player of the era, as brother is just as shiftless as Pa and is very good. It's also delightful to see the endearing actress Una Merkel with a role this large late into her career, she's as lovable as ever and has even a poignant moment or two when, helping Ma out with her brood, she wistfully realizes it's "a little late" for her to have children of her own even if she can manage to become another Mrs. Kettle. There's also a fun segment on the train where Ma and her "young-un's" manage to wreac havoc and particularly annoy another passenger, Elvia Allman, who a decade later would create a memorable hillbilly character of her own, belligerent Elverna Bradshaw on multiple episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies". I particularly enjoyed this segment: who hasn't been in Allman's shoes when a stranger talks your ear off telling you all sorts of information you are not remotely interested in or are encouraging them to proceed, and a particularly funny and real bit is when Ma's youngest, listening in with gusto, adds to the patter with intimate family details even chatterbox Ma doesn't want shared. Best of all are some terrifically trained animals on brother Kettle's farm, particularly a unforgettable galosses wearing duck and there's a hilarious segment when the whole barnyard gets drunk getting into the dumped mash from the corn squeezing.

Of course, the gangster plot is absurd (as if there would be big money from moonshine in the 1950's) but then you don't expect credibility from a Kettle film, after all, "Ma" is well into her sixties and her youngest is all of six! Just sit back and enjoy. Marjorie Main remains one of the best character comediennes in film and has a good supporting cast helping her make this little family comedy highly entertaining.