Rehashes the same basic situation as George Washington Slept Here, but a much bigger success – partly, I think, because the whole let’s move out to the country thing had more resonance after the war. Fred MacMurray tells Colbert without even asking that he’s quit his job and bought a farm – thanks Fred! But this is Claudette’s movie – she falls off a roof into a bucket of water, falls into mud chasing a pig, has soot fly on her kitchen, another woman chases after her husband, her husband basically ignores her and calls her an idiot for most of the film.
The script’s pretty good – there’s a terrific star turn by Ma and Pa Kettle, who steal the film, plus a decent love triangle involving a glamorous single girl farmer who sets her cap at MacMurray (though this goes on too far long at the end), and then handsome lunk Richard Long takes care of the teen girl interest as the eldest Kettle. (You don’t believe he’s related – Ma makes a joke along these lines)
Claudette Colbert’s little ticks and stuff kept reminding me of my grandmother. MacMurray does his amiable absent-minded schtick well. But Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbridge are fantastic.
There’s some schmaltz that works genuinely well, such as Claudette and Fred dressing up in formal wear, and the town rallying around when their barn burns down (although there’s this subtext that the mayor forces them to participate – and speaking of that mayor character, I kind of got the feeling he was like those pseudo-fascists who always make sure everything runs nice and smooth, so he’d run any trouble makers out of town).
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