Ma & Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle were the featured characters in a series of
popular light comedic movies in the 1940s and 1950s. The movies revolved around the absurd misadventures of the Kettle clan, a large
but loving family of country hicks. Pa (Percy Kilbride) was a gentle but slow-speaking, slow-thinking
and lazy man. His only talents appeared to be avoiding work and
winning contests. Ma (Marjorie Main) was larger, raucous, more
ambitious and smarter than Pa, but not by much and could easily be
fooled. She was content with her role as mother to a small army of
children on the Kettle's ramshackle farm. (Later in the series the
Kettles moved into a modern home that Pa won.) Much of the humor came from the preposterous situations the Kettles
found themselves in, such as Pa being mistaken for a wealthy
industrialist or being jailed after Pa accidentally set a series of
events in motion that resulted in race horses at the fair eating feed
laced with concrete. The Kettles first appeared in supporting roles in The Egg and I,
starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. After that they
starred in a series of their own movies. Main was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1948 for her role in The Egg and I. Kilbride retired after making the Waikiki movie. Pa Kettle did not
appear in The Kettles in the Ozarks. In The Kettles on Old
MacDonald's Farm, the last Kettle movie, Parker Fennelly played Pa
Kettle.
Some moviesThe Egg and I - 1947Ma and Pa Kettle - 1949Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town - 1950Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm - 1951Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair - 1952Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation - 1953Ma and Pa Kettle at Home - 1954Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki - 1955The Kettles in the Ozarks - 1956The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm - 1957
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