Tag Archives: Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950)

As I stated with our review of Ma and Pa Kettle (1949), the Kettle movies helped a struggling Universal pivot from the horror films that kept the studio in the chips through the 40s as monster films lost favor. I’m a sucker for cornpone humor and B-movies, so this is right up my alley.

In Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town, Pa Kettle has won yet another slogan contest and this time they won a trip to New York. This time they will be “a fish out of water” not in a new modern home, but in the big city.

Pa Kettle on the Town
Don’t call’n me a fashionista…unlessin’ ya want ta

I was surprised that they started this film still in the “house of tomorrow” they were in at the end of the first film. I figured they would have the “sitcom reset” and be back in their old house with a throwaway line stating they are now back in the old place. It was a true sequel which I wasn’t really expecting.

A bank thief on the run comes across Ma and Pa Kettle and offers to watch their 15 monstrous children so the Kettles take their trip to New York. He plants the loot on the Kettles and tells his gang to collect the cash from the rural rubes.

Jim Backus, Mr. Howell from Gilligan’s Island, had a role as one of the gang. He had none of the vocal affectations he would made famous as Howell and later Mr. Magoo. It was rather interesting seeing him in such a different role than I was used to for him. 

Ma Kettle discovers a secret stash of tickets
Ma Kettle discovers a secret stash of tickets

Of particular interest is seeing the New York of the 1950’s and seeing the cars and streetscapes of the time. I’m sure real New Yorkers would find it even more of interest as they saw a couple of the big sightseeing locations around the city.

A number of running gags and telegraphed plot devices follow. Amazingly, despite the age of the gags, some are still able to tickle you. That’s due to the expert craftsmanship these films were made with. What helps these movies is that despite the personal foibles of each of the characters, you can’t help but like the people you are spending the film with. Gags like popcorn getting mixed in with the pancake batter, endless soda deliveries due to winning the contest, not to mention chestnuts such as the Kettles forgetting their children’s names, still pay off. 

Nothing mean spirited here, just goodhearted fun and quiet understated humor. A standout line comes when Ma meets a hostess in a lowcut dress at a ball. She says, “That’s a pretty dress you’ve got on… too bad the top wasn’t finished in time for the party.”

Pa Kettle gets grilled
Pa Kettle gets grilled, but he keeps his hat with him

There are so many gags that you see coming a mile away, and yet the slow paced charm spins an irresistible charm. Key to that charm is Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride’s continued portrayal of the title characters. This was the third of eight they would do together and you can tell that they have really grown into the parts by the time they made this film.

The B-story of the criminal attempting to babysit the wild Kettle brood barely scraped the surface of the comedic material that was there. If anything was a shame, it was that we didn’t get to see more of that parallel tale since the Kettles in town wasn’t nearly as madcap as it could have been. I think the bank robber plot was overkill and slowed down the comedy. Just seeing the Kettles interact with high society would have been comedy enough. They didn’t need all the additional hijinks of law enforcement intrigue. We just want to see the Kettles flop around like the fish out of water they were. Thwarting villains isn’t really their bag, but you always needed that in mid century films. 

I have to admit a bit where Pa Kettle is calling the Square Dance is more clever than I expected and nice final curtain on the film.  Coming in at 80 minutes, it was just the thing for me tonight and maybe it will fit on your schedule, too.

Grade: B-

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950)

Ma and Pa Kettle (1949)

When I was growing up, about 100 years ago, I used to watch UHF channels. A lot. And UHF, during my formative years, had lots of old, inexpensive content. Things like the Dead End Kids. Charlie Chan. Blondie & Dagwood movies. And Ma and Pa Kettle movies.

And I never watched them.

What a waste because I just watched the first of the SERIES, and it was pretty good. But let’s start with a little of the backstory.

Ma and Pa Kettle premiered in the Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert film, The Egg and I, which I really need to catch, too! Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride played Ma & Pa with Marjorie Main walking away with an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actress. The film did well and the characters were so well received, they decided to focus on these side characters in a spinoff. The result, Ma & Pa Kettle (1949), is the film I will review in a moment…but it led to 9 Kettle films. They made a total of $35 million for the then-struggling studio.

At the time, horror films like Universal was best meant for, were losing favor and their huge success and low productions costs helped Universal when it really needed to find its feet. Many say the Kettle films literally saved Universal Studios.

Ma & Pa Kettle, for the unaware, was a film series about a backwoods squatter family in rural Cape Flattery, Washington. It featured fantastic character actors (including its stars) including lots of corny comedy.

In this first film, Pa wins a contest for a sales slogan (which was a big thing in the 50’s) and wins, get this, a dream house. Ma happily accepts the new “house of the future” but Pa can’t figure out the push button world. Some of the funniest parts, for a modern viewer, is seeing the 1950 view of the future.

It is fun to watch Ma and Pa interact as Ma forgets the names of her 15 children, Pa avoid any type of work that exists, and the dubious hygiene practices of everyone on screen. It feels very familiar like watching many of the other rural humor vehicles of the time.

As you might recall in the early 60s, not long after these films tore through the box office, had dozens of rural comedies led by Desilu productions like The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and the Beverly Hillbillies. I often wonder if rural comedy was a fad for a specific time, or if this humor lit upon a yearning in the country at the time…to go back to a simpler time.

Getting back to the film, it actually ages quite well…but….the B story, a hackneyed romance with the oldest Kettle son, is cringe worthy and frankly just awful. I think it is worth a viewing, if only to see where some really old jokes you have known forever, got their start.

Grade: B+

Ma and Pa Kettle (1949)