The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957)

 The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957)

The biggest discontinuity in the Kettle series so far.

Members of the cast had been replaced little by little, but with Percy Kilbride gone, Marjorie Main is now the last original surviving member of the cast.

The break results also in a different setting, (their house of the future is no longer even acknowledged,) with the Kettles attempting to sell their old farm and having purchased Old McDonald’s.

It’s all studio bound, and none of the sets are recognizable from before.

A local couple hoping to get married hides at the old farm and upon being found there claim to be married already but are immediately discovered.

The compromise will consist of the city gal nonexistent country skills being tested with the Kettle’s to serve as chaperones and if passing, then the wedding is to proceed.

One would think that farm life for the novice bride-to-be would provide enough material for the full feature, (after all, wasn’t that what The Egg and I was all about?) but that’s quickly done away with.

Very episodic, with familiar elements such as the reliance on prize money to solve financial problems, (an issue which, by the conclusion, is forgotten by everyone and abandoned by the script); but also the unnecessary repetition of the supposed-to-be-already-married charade with the couple discovered in compromising circumstances; the intrusion of a bear (surprisingly not played by a man in a suit,) and, most interestingly, addressing Ma and Pa’s sex lives by showing them both together on a matrimonial bed, (not a first for American cinema, surely?) and additionally by hinting that Ma might be pregnant again.

Ma’s role is well defined, but Pa’s (Parker Fennelly) presence, despite the characters' obvious warmth for each other, is intrusive and there’s a surprisingly unexpected moment where Ma even kicks him out of the house.

Neither of the actors seems to be the age they are supposed to be (early 50s, maybe?) but I guess country life is much harder on folks than I would think.

This might be the oddest chapter just as a regular feature and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the series even considering cast changes and introductory credits, which was to be expected; and with this chapter the Ma and Pa Kettle series was finally over.

I had seen some of the series before, not every chapter and maybe not even in chronological order, and other than the fact that Pa had been replaced, (I recall one of my kids commented to not liking the second actor as much as they did the first,) I retained not a single detail.

Watching the series now was like watching it for the first time, which doesn’t really say much for their memorability.

The movies are pleasant enough, which I guess is enough to recommend them but, despite their popularity, that’s about it.

With Gloria Talbott, John Smith, and Claude Akins.