Moviecut—Ma and Pa Kettle

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source: Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle

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 :)

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main return to reprise their roles as Pa and Ma Kettle starring in their own film. Pa Kettle wins a contest which means a more modern home for him and his family of fifteen children. Meg Randall who passed away last year makes her debut in the Kettle series aboard the train. That's where you see her look for an imaginary husband. That clip of Meg is featured in the TCM remembers video of 2018 where did you go? line. Meg Randall played Kim Parker, a journalist who falls in love with a Kettle. It's a fine comedy and film. Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride deserved a lot more fame for their acting abilities. Marjorie Main was quite a scene stealer.

I'd somehow managed to go my entire life without seeing a Ma & Pa Kettle film (other than THE EGG AND I, which I don't think I got far enough into to meet the Kettles) - until tonight, that is, when I saw that MA & PA KETTLE was about to start on TCM. I figured it would probably be a fun way to wind down Saturday evening. Well, despite the presence of the usually delightful Marjorie Main, from the very first scene I found this film loud, irritating, and remarkably unfunny. Yes, I stuck it out to the end. Oh well. I kept feeling that what I was watching somehow should have been funny, but while the film may have convulsed audiences in 1949, by 2010 standards it was pretty tough going. Loved that flat-screen TV, though!

Having appeared as supporting characters in "The Egg and I", Ma and Pa Kettle (and their children) got to be the stars of a movie. Charles Lamont's "Ma and Pa Kettle" features the rural brood moving into a prefab home and trying to adjust to the modern lifestyle. The movie reminded me of the Daffy Duck-Elmer Fudd cartoon "Design for Leaving", wherein Daffy turns Elmer's house into a push-button home, with Elmer suffering repeated mishaps. Admittedly, the movie isn't anything profound, but it doesn't pretend to be. Ma is her usual sharp-tongued self, Pa is his usual lazy self, the kids appear to be trained in guerrilla warfare, and Tom is the forward-thinking member of the family. As for Kim, well...what a babe! You'll probably have fun watching the movie.

The only good thing about this inane film is the house of the future with all its modern conveniences. In a way, the film is an insult to large families as Ma Kettle has an inability to remember the names of her 15 children. Even the old woman who lived in a shoe did better than this. Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride were extremely adept at delivering the lines which they did. Their folksy attitude was of great benefit during this series. Are we poking fun at the institution of the large family? After all, the Kettle's did succeed with son Richard Long. Of course, critics should be arguing about Kilbride's laziness and the general poverty conditions that the family lives under. The ending of the film with the Indians was ridiculous, but basically that is true of so much of the film. What was the significance of the segment with Ida Moore? She should have been used in the movie "Harvey" with non-existent people.

Ma and Pa Kettle live in a falling down shack with 14 of their 15 kids. Tom, the eldest, is away at college. Ma can't remember all of her kids names, and Pa is extremely lazy. Pa enters a contest to supply a slogan for a tobacco company so he can get a new tobacco pouch. They end up winning the grand prize, a new, modern house with many electronic features. My expectations of this film was that it would have more slapstick elements in it, like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, but it doesn't. It has gentle humor, most of it stemming from Pa Kettle's "fish out of water" situations, ie a poor country man living in a house with modern conveniences. This film was OK, but I really didn't laugh out loud too many times. More of a gentle type of humor, it just brought smiles to my face.