Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954)

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954)

Sticking to the sitcom nature of the series we again get the already familiar introduction, including theme music and still imagery.

Yet another of the Kettles’ contest entries wins them a hundred bucks with the potential of winning a scholarship for the next offspring in line.

The first problem is that it’s now a competition between the Kettle’s son and his neighboring love interest. The second one is that the highly fictitious description of the farm will clearly fail the inspection by the magazine's fussy editor, an odd condition of the contest.

And so, the Kettles move out of their futuristic home and back to the farm to make enough improvements to give them a chance at the big prize.

A lot of screen time is spent on (literally) putting up the false front, and them attempting to hide the subterfuge from the fastidious judge.

Oddly, it’s revealed to be a holiday movie at the last minute with no previous indication it was going in that direction, and which might have been hinted at in the title but wasn’t. The Kettle’s warmth is revealed during their Christmas party, (an odd time to schedule a contest judging,) and wins the judge over.

As always, (and we are already more than halfway thru the series,) humor is mild throughout, with maybe a couple of well-earned hearty laughs.

Marjorie Main’s stunt double is given the opportunity for some physical comedy, and the film relies heavily on Pa’s (Percy Kilbride) well-established schtick, helped mightily by his two Indian (unpaid?) worker sidekicks, (Oliver Blake, now accompanied by Stan Ross), though the characters have already undergone subtle changes which allow them to actually fix up their old place; if you recall, in The Egg and I, Ma had already given up on life.