[.ca] The Adventures of Ma And Pa Kettle, Vol 1

Why not a true boxed set?:
While the quality is decent I dont see why they just dont release this as a complet box set in the order these movies came out. 1. The Egg and I (1947) 2. Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' (1948) 3. Ma and Pa Kettle (1949) aka "The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle" 4. Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950) 5. Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951) 6. Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952) aka "Ma and Pa Kettle at the County Fair" 7. Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953) aka "Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Paris" aka "Ma and Pa Kettle Hit the Road" 8. Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) 9. Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955) 10.The Kettles in The Ozarks (1956) (Without Percy Kilbride, Arthur Hunnicutt as Pa's brother - Sedge Kettle) 11. The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957) (Without Percy Kilbride) Now if they released it like this I would be happy, as it is now it is a far cry from being a good set.

Fun movies, bad packaging:
Good news first- if you love the Ma & Pa Kettle movies, buy these immediately. They are very enjoyable little movies- corny, unsophisticated,formulaic, but good clean fun. The prints and sound are as good as one might hope for fifty year old films. Now the bad news- and this is really more annoying than anything-the packaging is very sloppy: 1)the films are not in the right order, 2)the second film is called "The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle" on the box although the correct title is simple "Ma and Pa Kettle" and 3)The plot description given for "Ma and Pa Kettle" is completely wrong. These are merely quibbles, though. Overall, fans of the Kettles will be pleased.

If you liked HEE HAW, then this is going to be up your alley:
Just because a film is old doesn't make it a classic, and these Universal KETTLE films are really downright awful. The characters were spun off after THE EGG AND I (a decent comedy), and the films that followed are painful to sit through. Universal lets hundreds of true classic films rot in their vault while they lavish attention on this tripe. I just don't get it...

Great to see "The Egg and I" again:
The real gem of this package is "The Egg and I", and to get it along with the first three "Ma and Pa" movies is even better. The three M & P movies represented here are somewhat of a mixed bag as far as the humor is concerned. However, in all cases, the transfers are nicely done by Universal and the bonus of theatrical trailers makes this a set well worth the investment.

A charming comedy:
"The Egg And I," the first of the Ma & Pa Kettle films, is a genuinely funny, old-school comedy from 1948, featuring Fred MacMurray as a city slicker gone country boy, a white collar executive who decides to chuck it all in and become a chicken farmer, somewhere deep in the boonies, and Claudette Colbert as his long-suffering, stand-by-her-man, newlywed wife. Both actors have superb comic timing, and their chemistry together-- he blithely missing her every disatisfaction, she gulping back her exasperation -- is quite good. This was also the first movie to feature the iconic "hick" couple, Ma & Pa Kettle, a Lil Abner-ish pair who went on to make several films together after this debut. I suspect this film, however, is the best of the lot. Recommended!