The Adventures of Ma & Pa Kettle, Vol. 1The Adventures of Ma & Pa Kettle, Vol. 1

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MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

    The Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle, Volume 1 is an entertaining film compilation and, given its generous running time and low price, one difficult to complain about. The two-sided single disc in a slipcase contains one classic A-movie comedy, The Egg and I (1947), starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, and three B-movie comedies -- The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle (1949), Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950), Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951) -- built around the two characters played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, and all for the cost of a single, front-line DVD release of a modern title. The movies are in good shape, mastered in full-frame (1.33:1), though it's clear that Universal has not done any serious searching for materials. The best of the movies, Chester Erskine's The Egg and I, looks clean, though very slightly soft, as though the source were not quite the 35 mm answer-print or first-generation negative that would be ideal; it's not that it's bad in any way, just not as perfect in its sharpness as it should ideally be. The later Ma and Pa Kettle movies here actually look very slightly better than the first two pictures in the collection. The Egg and I comes with a reissue trailer, and The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle has the original trailer, which opens with Main and Kilbride addressing the camera directly, re-using a gimmick that turns up at the opening of The Egg and I involving Claudette Colbert. Each movie has been given a very generous 18 chapters and comes with a selection of Spanish and French subtitles with optional English captions. The triple-layer menu on each side opens automatically, offering the side's film selection and the feature selection on each movie. The annotation and plot descriptions are minimal, but adequate. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:
  • Region: 1
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Screen: Black and White
  • Audio: PCM Stereo
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
AWARDS
  • Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  •     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1947 (Marjorie Main)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
REVIEW:
  • Though it's largely overlooked today, The Egg and I helped spawn two separate pop-culture phenomena a decade and a half apart. Its most obvious direction offshoot manifestation is the Ma and Pa Kettle movies, which were built around two characters (played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride) from the movie and the original book by Betty MacDonald. It was also the distant precursor to the 1960s television series Green Acres, if not its direct inspiration. The whole notion of transplanting otherwise level-headed city-dweller Fred MacMurray and his genteel, sophisticated (and quietly skeptical) wife Claudette Colbert to a broken-down farm is close enough, but the entire scene in which the pair examine their newly acquired home -- all she sees is a wreck, while he enthuses, goofily smiling and eagerly anticipating the country life ahead of them -- are practically the storyboard for the first half of the first season of Green Acres. Indeed, most of the cast of supporting characters from that series are here in embryonic form, along with the essentials of the marriage: the serious husband with that one nutsy flaw -- he wants to be a farmer -- and the overly dignified, ladylike wife, both learning to cope with rustic neighbors. MacMurray is especially fascinating to watch here, playing a role that's a complete reversal of the part he played in Murder, He Says (1945), a rural comedy in which he is the big-city fellow who is totally flabbergasted at the habits of the country folks he encounters. Here, he's the calm, dopily enthusiastic visitor and Colbert is the one who is bewildered by all she finds around her. She also shows a knack for style that anticipates Lucille Ball's comedic art, and the setup of the would-be macho husband and the sophisticated, sharp-tongued, slightly goofy wife prefigures any number of I Love Lucy episodes, as well as her role in Vincente Minnelli's 1954 feature The Long, Long Trailer. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

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