If you’ve thought about moving to the country and raising chickens, you better see this 1947 film, starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as the newly weds who opt for life with the chickens and neighbors, Ma and Pa Kettle. This was the film that launched a career for the Kettles and their 15 children. Marjorie Main plays “Ma” and Percy Kilbride plays the bewildered “Pa”.
The upside of this small town life shines through when they all join in and help the young newlyweds (after some setbacks.)
There are lots of funny scenes with Ma and Pa Kettle. Ma can’t remember her kids’ names (hey, I can’t fault her that), Pa seems a few sticks short of a bundle and life looks kind of idyllic, even with all of those kids.
I must say, I have used a quote from this movie — when Ma clears the dining table of all the junk that has accumulated there, swishing it all to the floor, she exclaims, “it might as well be in one place as another.” If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.
The movie is based on the best-selling book, by Betty McDonald, “The Egg and I”, a novel set in Washington, about a young city woman whose husband gets the urge to get back to nature after his service in World War II. The movie was a hit as well.
